Sindhu, Srikanth in pre-quarters; Praneeth, Satwik-Chirag exit Malaysia Open

Kuala Lumpur, June 27 (IANS) P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the second round but B. Sai Praneeth and the young men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy exited the Malaysia Open badminton championships in the opening round on Wednesday.

Third seed Sindhu got past Japanese Aya Ohori with a 26-24 21-15 victory in 45 minutes to set-up a clash in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday against Malaysian Ying Ying Lee, who defeated Chinese Taipei's Chiang Ying Li 21-14, 19-21, 21-7.

Sindhu's senior compatriot Saina Nehwal will also play her second round on Thursday against Japanese second seed Akane Yamaguchi. Saina on Tuesday got past Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin 21-12, 21-16 in 42 minutes in the first round.

Women's singles top seed Tai Tzu Ying, Olympic 2016 champion Carolina Marin of Spain and South Korean seventh seed Sung ji Hyun crossed the first round without much difficulty.

In the men's singles, fourth seed Srikanth eased past Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen 21-18, 21-9 in 31 minutes.

Srikanth will on Thursday face Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei, who defeated Indian Praneeth 21-12, 21-7 in 32 minutes.

In the men's doubles, the young pair of Satwik-Chirag lost to Japanese seventh seeds Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 16-21, 15-21 in 36 minutes.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)