Sindhu, Gurusai Dutt advance to second round in Malaysia

Top seed PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after recording a win over Singapore’s Chena Jiayuan on a day that saw three Indians qualifying for the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event in Kuala Lumpur. Sindhu beat Jiayuan 21-13, 19-21, 21-13 in a match that lasted 47 minutes. Sindhu will meet Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in the quarterfinals tomorrow. [caption id=“attachment_745399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Gurusai Dutt beat Giap Chin Goh, also from the host country, 21-8, 21-9 in just 26 minutes. AFP[/caption] Making the pre-quarters of the men’s event were RMV Gurusai Dutt, Sameer Verma and K Srikanth. Verma defeated Malaysia’s Wei Feng Chong 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 in 55 minutes while Gurusai Dutt beat Giap Chin Goh, also from the host country, 21-8, 21-9 in just 26 minutes. K Srikanth got the better of Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand 21-9, 21-19 in 36 minutes. PC Thulasi tasted defeat in the first round of the women’s section, losing to China’s Yao Xue 21-18, 21-5. Also losing was Arundhati Pantawane, who was shown the door by Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti 13-21, 21-10, 21-14. Tanvi Lal too lost, to Japan’s Ito Kana 21-8 21-14. H S Prannoy, who got a walkover in the first round, lost his second round match to Malaysia’s Zainuddin Iskandar Zulkarnain 15-21, 21-14, 21-15. In mixed doubles, Sanjeeth S and Jagadish Yadav lost to Indonesian duo of Hardi Hardianto and Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra 21-16, 21-17. PTI