India Shuttlers Start Malaysia Masters On A Disappointing Note

Indian shuttlers kicked of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament on a disappointing note as Lakshya Sen and Shubhankar Dey were knocked out of the tournament after losing in the qualifying round of the men’s singles event. In the women’s doubles, the pair of Pooja Dhanda and Sanjana Santosh met the same fate as Lakshya and Shubhnakar on Tuesday.

Shubhankar Dey who was the first Indian to kick of the proceedings of the day was defeated by Malaysia’s Liew Daren in straight games 21-15,21-15. While Lakshya Sen went down fighting to Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. The Danish player defeated Lakshay 11-21,21-18, 21-14.

On the other hand World champion PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Saina Nehwal would like to begin the New Year with a victory in the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament.

World number six Sindhu has not won any Super Series title for the last two years. She did not win any trophy except for the World Championship in Basel, Switzerland last year. Saina also won just one trophy in 2019. There are less than seven months left in the Olympics and Sindhu will want to start strong by improving her flaws.

Rio Olympics silver medalist Sindhu will kick off her campaign against Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia. Sindhu has the possibility of facing world number one Chinese Taipei’s Tai Xu Ying in the quarter-finals. Saina, who won the Indonesia Masters title last year, will play in the first round qualifiers.

In the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth will have to overcome Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-Chen in the first round, while B Sai Praneeth faces Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke. Sameer Verma will take on Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen, P Kashyap will have to sweat hard to advance to the next round as he will lock horns with world number one Kento Memota in the opening match. India’s HS Prannoy will kick-off his campaign Japan’s Kenta Sunayama.