Sindhu, Gurusaidutt advance in Malaysian GP

New Delhi: Top seed P V 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 on Thursday. Making the pre-quarters of the men`s event were R M V Gurusaidutt, Sameer Verma and K Srikanth. Verma defeated Malaysia`s Wei Feng Chong 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 in 55 minutes while Gurusaidutt 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. P C 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