Malaysia Masters: Saina Nehwal, Ajay Jayaram, Jwala Gutta-Manu Attri advance to second round

Sibu, Malaysia: Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Ajay Jayaram and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Manu Attri advanced in the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Sibu on Wednesday. Also advancing are the men’s doubles pair of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri, as well as the women’s doubles team of Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant. [caption id=“attachment_3108816” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] Top seed Saina advanced to the second round with a facile 21-9, 21-8 win over Thai qualifier Chasinee Korepap. Jayaram won both the first- and second-round matches on the day when he moved past Jun Hao Leong 21-10, 17-21, 21-14 and Saputra Vicky Angga 21-9, 21-12. Manu-Sumeeth pair beat Malaysians Jia Huo Chen and Chun Kang Shia 15-21, 21-13, 21-18. Manu then joined hands with Jwala to beat Indonesians Lukhi Apri Nugroho and Ririn Amelia 21-19, 21-18. Prajakta also had a successful day as she won in both the doubles competitions. She paired up with Aparna to overcome Indonesian combine of Aghisna Fathkul Laili and Aprilsasi Putri Lejarsar Variella 21-10, 21-11. Then Prajakta partnered Malaysian Yogendran Khrishnan to beat Hong Kong’s Hee Chun Mak and Yeung Nga Ting 21-14, 22-20. However, Sumeeth and Ashwini Ponnappa exited the mixed doubles contest with a 17-21, 17-21 loss to Indonesians Tontowi Ahmad and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja. Also exiting was Hemant M. Gowda, who beat Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky 21-14, 21-15 in the opening round but lost to Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Chan 17-21, 23-25 in the second round. Pratul Joshi and Aditya Joshi also suffered losses on the day, as did the young mixed doubles pair of K. Maneesha and R. Satwiksairaj.