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Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy Malvika Bansod cruised into the round of 16 of the Malaysia Open 2025 badminton tournament after registering a win against their respective opponents in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Prannoy beat Brian Yang 21-12, 17-21, 21-15 while Malvika eased past Goh Jin Wei 21-15, 21-16 at the Stadium Axiata Arena. India's only representative in the men's doubles, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy registered a 21-10, 16-21, 21-5 victory against Chinese Taipei's Tang Kai-Wei and Lu Ming-che in their round of 32 opener. Seeded seventh in the BWF Super 1000 tournament, SatChi will take on Malaysia's Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub and Tan Wee Kiong in the next round. In singles action, HS Prannoy overcame unusual circumstances to advance to the pre-quarterfinals after his match against Brian Yang had to be halted due to a leaky roof at the stadium on Tuesday. World No. 26, HS Prannoy won the first game 21-12 on Tuesday before play was halted due to a leaking roof at the stadium in the second. The score read 6-3 in Prannoy's favour at the time and the match resumed briefly as Brian Yang fought back to take an 11-9 lead in the second game before the encounter was postponed to Wednesday due to persistent leakage through the roof. Once the action restarted on Wednesday, Brian Yang went on to win the second game, however, HS Prannoy regrouped and rallied in the third game to advance to the round of 16. Prannoy will face seventh-seeded Shi Feng Li in the next round after the shuttler from the People's Republic of China won his round of 32 match against India's Priyanshu Rajawat 21-11, 21-16. Malvika Bansod's progress to the pre-quarterfinals was much more straightforward. Up against local favourite, a Youth Olympics gold medallist and a two-time junior world champion Goh Jin Wei, Malvika Bansod took 45 minutes to beat the Malaysian. Bansod will face third-seeded Han Yue in the next round. Aakarshi Kashyap, on the other hand, lost 21-14, 21-12 against Julie Jakobsen of Denmark in her opening round match. India's other women's singles shuttler Anupama Upadhyaya also exited in the first round. She put up a fight but went down 21-17, 18-21, 21-8 to Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong. Meanwhile, India's mixed double pairings of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila as well as Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath enjoyed victorious outings on the day. Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila beat the Republic of Korea's Ko Sung-Hyun and Eom Hye-won 21-13, 21-14, while Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath defeated Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh 21-13, 21-15 in an all Indian affair. However, India's women's doubles duos of Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda and Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa suffered first-round exits. The sibling duo of Rutaparna and Swetaparna lost 21-17, 21-10 against Thailand's Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard. Eighth-seeded Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 23-21, 21-12 to Japan's Misaki Matsutomo and Chiharu Shida. (ANI)
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