CHENNAI: HS Prannoy’s match, his first since the Paris Olympics, was halted by rain on Tuesday. It was a bizarre moment since the contest was happening indoors at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur. Twenty-four hours later, Prannoy returned to record a fighting win (21-12, 17-21, 21-15) over Bryan Yang of Canada.
Persistent leakage had caused suspension of the match in the ongoing Malaysian Open on Tuesday with Yang leading 11-9 in the second game. After the day’s outcome, Prannoy booked a second-round men’s singles match versus Li Shi Feng of China. Li had sent India’s Priyanshu Rajawat packing with a 21-11, 21-16 victory in his opening match.
Star doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who are seeded seventh, lost a game against World 43 combination of Ming Che Lu and Tang Kai Wei (Chinese Taipei) but they recovered in an emphatic manner to seal the men’s doubles contest 21-10, 16-21, 21-5.
Malvika Bansod, competing in women’s singles, reached the same stage of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event with a 21-15, 21-16 victory over Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia. She will also face a Chinese opponent in the form of Han Yue on Thursday. Han is currently ranked World No 5 and Malvika, who is one of the bright youngsters in the women’s singles department, is expected to face a stiff challenge.
Teenager Anupama Upadhyaya, the former junior World No 1, captured a game against eight-seeded Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand but she eventually lost steam to suffer a three-game defeat (21-17, 18-21, 21-8).
Aakarshi Kashyap also lost her singles match to bow out. Women’s doubles pairing of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also went down against the Japanese combination of Misaki Matsutomo and Chiharu Shida. Tanisha had something to cheer about as she, along with Dhruv Kapila, won their mixed doubles match to advance.
Sathish Kumar and Aadya Variyath also won their mixed doubles contest to enter Round 2. In an all-Indian contest, Sathish and Aadya posted a 21-13, 21-15 victory over Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh.
In what was a clash between sister pairings, Swetaparna and Rituparna Panda of India lost 17-21, 10-21 against World No 18 pairing of Benyapa and Nuntakarn Aimsaard from Thailand.
