Malaysia Masters: PV Sindhu survives scare in second round as Ashmita Chaliha stuns third seed

Two-time Olympic-medallist PV Sindhu survived a scare before prevailing over Korea’s Sim Yu Jin but the highlight of the day was Ashmita Chaliha’s stunning win over third seed Beiwen Zhang of USA in the second round of the Malaysia Masters on Thursday. World No. 15 Sindhu, a former world champion, saw off Sim 21-13 12-21 21-14 in a 59-minute women’s singles second-round match to register her third win over the Korean world number 34. The 28-year-old from Hyderabad hasn’t been able to hit top form ever since returning to action following a knee injury sustained in October last year.

Sindhu, seeded fifth, will next face top seed Han Yue in a revenge match. The Chinese had defeated her in their last meeting at the Asia badminton Championships in Ningbo last month.

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Sindhu, who last won a title in 2022 Singapore Open, has an overwhelming 5-1 head-to-head record against Han, who is now ranked world number 6. Later, the 24-year-old Ashmita, ranked 53rd, sizzled her way to a 21-19 16-21 21-12 win over world no. 10 Zhang to also storm into the quarterfinals of the Super 500 badminton tournament.

This is her second quarterfinal appearance in a super 500 event, having reached the last 8 in 2022 India Open.

The Guwahati shuttler will next square off against sixth seeded Chinese Zhang Yi Man, ranked 16th.

Earlier, Sindhu was left to do the catching up job in the opening game as she trailed 3-7. But she fought her way back and grabbed a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. The Indian then reeled off seven points to run away with the opening game.

The second game was a tight affair as the two fought hard with Han managing to take a one-point advantage at the interval. She snatched the momentum after resumption.

The Korean was soon up 14-10 and went on to win seven of the next nine points to roar back into the contest.

Sim once again made a positive start to move to a 5-1 lead in the decider. But Sindhu clawed back at 6-6 before the Korean was up 9-8 at one stage.

The Indian then took control and zoomed to 13-9 before a five-point burst from 16-14 to seal the contest.

Ashmita has been in good touch as she had defeated Canada’s Michelle Li and also came close to beating Japan’s Aya Ohori at Uber Cup and China’s Han Yue in Thailand last week.

On Thursday, the left-handed shuttler kept things in her grip as she opened up a 4-1 lead before taking a 11-10 cushion at the break. Beiwen managed to grab 14-13 lead and was 17-17 at one stage but the Indian kept her nose ahead to win the opening game.

There was nothing to separate the two after the change of sides as they split the points till 8-8 when Beiwen moved ahead with three straight points. She kept the Indian at bay to take the match to the decider.

In the third game, Ashmita came out all cylinders blazing as she jumped to 11-4 at the interval and then continued her victory march.

In other results, Kiran George went down fighting 13-21 18-21 against fifth seed Lee Zii Jia in men’s singles.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded 7th, also lost 18-21 22-20 14-21 to Korean pair of Sung Shuo Yun and Yu Chien Hui.

The mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy also suffered a loss, going down 9-21 15-21 to top-seeded Malaysian pair of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, while Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker went down 17-21 11-21 to second-seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in women’s doubles.