IMAGE: World No 9 H S Prannoy held his nerves after going a game down to upset Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei in his opening match. Photograph: Toru Hanai/Getty Images
Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu had to dig deep to beat Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the women’s singles opening round, while H S Prannoy dished out a superlative display to stun world number six Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei at the Malaysia Masters, in Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday.
Sindhu, seeded sixth, had to toil for one hour and two minutes to get the better of Christophersen 21-13, 17-21, 21-18 and maintain her superiority over World No 33 Dane, who the Indian had defeated four times earlier.
The two-time Olympic medallist Indian, ranked World No 13, will next play Japan’s Aya Ohori.
World No 9 Prannoy, later, held his nerves after going a game down to upset Chou, ranked sixth, 16-21, 21-14, 21-13 in his opening match to enter the pre-quarter-finals. He will next lock horns against Shi Feng Li of China.
The other Indian man to enter the second round was Kidambi Srikanth, who defeated Toma Junior Popov of France 21-12, 21-16. He will be next clash against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, seeded eighth.
However, it was curtains for qualifier Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod in the women’s singles competition as they suffered straight-game defeats to crash out in the opening round.
While Ashmita lost 17-21, 7-21 against fourth seed Yue Han of China, Aakarshi was shown the door by top seed Japanese Akane Yamaguchi 17-21, 12-21.
Malvika was no match for second seed Zhi Yi Wang of China as she lost 11-21, 13-21.
Later in the day, Lakshya Sen will be up against seventh seed Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in his opening men’s singles tie.
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