Saina Nehwal marches on in Malaysia Masters; Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth knocked out

Kaula Lumpur: Top Indian male shuttlers Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth made a horrid start to their 2020 season as they both crashed out in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters. Praneeth made a first round exit after suffering an 11-21, 15-21 defeat to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke in 46 minutes.

Srikanth, on the other hand, lost his second seed encounter to World No.2 Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen 17-21, 5-21 in a match that lasted for only 30 minutes. This was his fifth consecutive loss against Chou. The defeats of the duo was yet another case of disappointment for India in the Super 500 tournament after Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's first-round defeat in the men's doubles event on Tuesday.

However, Saina Nehwal cruised into the second round of the women's singles event after registering a convincing win over Belgium's Lianne Tan. Saina, the London Olympics bronze medallist, beat Tan 21-15, 21-17 in 36 minutes in what was their maiden appearance against each other.

A day earlier on Tuesday (January 7, 2020) not only Lakshya Sen failed to qualify for the main draw but also the men's doubles pair comprising Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out after losing in the qualifiers here on Tuesday. Lakshya went down to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-11, 18-21, 14-21 in a tough clash lasting for 49 minutes.

Another Indian in the men's singles event - Shubhankar Dey also failed as he too, went down 15-21, 15-21 to Malaysia's Liew Daren in just 32 minutes. India's poor outing on Tuesday continued as the men's doubles duo comprising Rankireddy and Shetty lost 15-21, 21-18, 15-21 to the lower-ranked local pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in 52 minutes.

Even the women's doubles pair of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh didn't taste success as they too lost to the Indonesian pair of Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Ribka Sugiarto 15-21, 10-21 in 30 minutes.