Kuala Lumpur, Jan 9 (IANS) The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were the lone survivors as H.S Prannoy, Malvika Bansod and the women’s doubles pair of Treesha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made their exit from the Malaysia Open 2025, the first Super 1000 event of the new season of the BWF World Tour.
Satwik-Chirag, the Commonwealth and Asian Games medal winners picked up India’s sole victory on Thursday, beating local heroes Mohd Azriyn Ayub and Tan Wee Kiong for a 21-15, 21-15 win in just 43 minutes at the Stadium Axiata Arena in the Malaysian capital. The duo will face another Malaysian pair, Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the quarterfinals on Friday.
In men’s singles, world No.26, H.S. Prannoy crashed out of the tournament despite a fighting performance against seventh-seeded Shi Feng Li of China as his run in the event was brought to a disappointing end in three games on Thursday. Despite winning the second game and taking the third to a tie-breaker, Prannoy lost 21-8, 15-21, 23-21 in a Round of 16 clash that lasted an hour and 22 minutes.
“Was almost there at the finish line tonight but was not meant to be today. Disappointed to lose out on an opportunity to go deeper in this tournament, but feels good to be back playing at this level again. Next up – Indian Open,” said Prannoy in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
In other matches, Malvika Bansod’s Malaysia Open campaign came to an end against third seed Han Yue of China. The 23-year-old Malvika started well, taking a 6-2 lead, but she failed to ride the momentum on her opponent Han Yue, especially in the second game, allowing the Chinese star to win a 21-18, 21-11.
In women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also exited the event despite putting up a fight. The sixth-seeded pair from India lost 15-21, 21-18, 21-19 to China’s Jia Yifan-Zhang Shuxian.
In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto lost to seventh-seeds Chinese duo of Zhang Chi-Cheng Xing 21-13, 22-20 in straight games while, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath were defeated 21-10, 21-17 by fourth-seeded Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia.
–IANS
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