Malaysia Masters | Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal advance to quarter-finals

SportsCafe Desk
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Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal made it to the quarter-finals in the men’s and women’s singles events of the ongoing Malaysia Masters badminton tournament. The Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy, however, were knocked out in the second round. 

Nehwal defeated Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip 21-14, 21-16 in the second round game of the Malaysia Masters making it to the quarter-finals of the tournament. The seventh seed Indian shuttler took 39 minutes to register her second win in straight games at the event. The Hong Kong shuttler had a lead of 11-10 in the first game at the break but Nehwal came back strong to take the game away by 21-14 points. She continued her dominance in the second one as well, managing to win it 21-16 to set up the next clash against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara.

Srikanth had to play the decider against Wong Wing Ki Vincent to get through the second round as the seventh seed Indian took around 64 minutes to beat the Hong Kong shuttler 23-21, 8-21, 21-18. The first game was the most competitive one out of the three, however, Srikanth remained cool till the end to take it away 23-21 after trailing 11-7 at one stage. Vincent then made a brilliant comeback as the second one in his favour while Srikanth got the decider by 21-18 points to make sure his qualification for the quarters. Now, he will meet South Korea’s Son Wan Ho in the next round. 

In another men's singles encounter, Parupalli Kashyap lost to  Anthony Ginting of Indonesia in straight games. Ginting took the first game away by 21-17 points but the Indian shuttler gave a tough fight in the second one before going down by 25-23 points to get knocked out of the tournament. 

Meanwhile, India’s mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy has been knocked out of the Malaysia Masters as they were defeated by Indonesia’s Ni Ketut Mahadewi Istarani and Rizki Amelia Pradipta 18-21, 17-21 in the second round.

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