India’s number two shuttler HS Prannoy and rising shuttler Malvika Bansod advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open after winning their respective men’s and women’s singles opening round matches on Wednesday. There was more delight for the Indian camp with the pairs of Tanisha Crasto/Dhruv Kapila and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran/Aadya Variyath sailing into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the Super 1000 meet. Overcoming a delay caused by water leaking from the roof, Prannoy eliminated his Canadian rival Brian Yang 21-12, 17-21, 21-15. Persistent leakage had caused suspension of the match on Tuesday with Yang leading 11-9 in the second game.
Despite conceding the second game, Prannoy maintained composure to seal the decider in a match lasting one-hour 29 minutes.
Prannoy will next face seventh seeded Shi Feng Li of China who ousted Priyanshu Rajawat 21-11, 21-16.
Malvika breezed past local favourite Goh Jin Wei 21-15, 21-16 in just 45 minutes. She will face the winner of Chinese third seed Yue Han and Yu Po Pai of South Korea.
In other Indian results, Kapila and Crasto defeated South Korea’s Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom 21-13, 21-14. They will face seventh seeded Chinese pair Xing Cheng and Chi Zhang in the last-16.
Sathish and Aadya defeated Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh 21-13 21-15 to set up a pre-quarters clash against fourth seed Soon Huat Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai of the host country.
In women’s doubles, Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda lost to Thailand’s Benyapa and Nuntakarn Aimsaard 17-21, 10-21.
