Malaysia Masters: Sindhu, Prannoy through to semis; Srikanth exits

India’s ace shuttler P V Sindhu defeated China’s Zhang Yi Man to enter the Malaysia Masters semifinal on Friday.

India’s Pusarla V. Sindhu in action. | Photo Credit: AP

India’s ace shuttler P V Sindhu defeated China’s Zhang Yi Man to enter the Malaysia Masters semifinal on Friday.

The double Olympic medallist took an hour and 14 minutes to defeat the lower ranked Chinese 21-16, 13-21, 22-20.

Sindhu avenged her round-of-32 loss to Zhang, ranked 18th, in the All England Open earlier this year. She will face seventh seed and world number nine Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday.

In the men’s singles event, H S Prannoy beat Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 25-.23, 18-21, 21-18 to advance into the semifinals.

He will now face Christian Adinata of Indonesia, who defeated Kidambi Srikanth, in the semifinals.

Prannoy has never played against the 21-year-old Adinata, who began playing at the senior level just last year.

In a match that lasted for 57 minutes Srikanth won the first game against Adinata, while losing the other two. The scoreline stood at 21-16, 16-21, 11-21 with the Indian suffering the brunt.

Malaysia Masters is the first event for the Road to Paris- the qualifying cycle for Paris 2024 Olympics.

With inputs from PTI