H S Prannoy stunned world number 10 Kanta Tsuneyama while ace Indian women shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal registered convincing wins to sail into the second round of the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament at Kuala Lumpur today.
Prannoy, ranked 26th in the world, took 34 minutes to send Tsuneyama packing with a 21-9 21-17 win in the first round match.
Prannoy will now face world number one and top seed Japanese Kento Momota, in the second round tomorrow.
Reigning world champion Sindhu, seeded sixth, took just 35 minutes to beat Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia 21-15 21-13 in the first round.
The other Indian in the fray, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina needed just 36 minutes to get the better of Belgium’s Lianne Tan.
The unseeded Saina brushed aside Tan 21-15 21-17 in just 36 minutes of action.
However, world championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the tournament.
Praneeth made a first-round exit after going down tamely to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 11-21 15-21 while Srikanth lost his second round encounter to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen 17-21 5-21 in only 30 minutes.
WhatsApp us