Malaysia Masters 2020: PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal move into the quarter finals

It was a good day for the Indian shuttlers as top Indian female shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu moved into the quarterfinals by winning their respective matches at Super 500 Malaysia Masters played at Axaia Arena, Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Saina Nehwal defeated An-Se-Young of South Korea in two straight games 25-23, 21-12. It was a good performance by the Indian who played good badminton. It will be her first quarterfinals since the 2019 French Open 2019. With this win, Saina leveled the head to head record against the young South Korean at 1-1.

It was a tough fight in the first game with both players fighting for each point till 23-23. Saina held her nerves to win the game at 25-23. In the second game, the Indian dominated the South Korean right from word go and made life tough for her opponent. She will take on Carolina Marin in the quarter-finals. Marin defeated Chinese Cai Yan Yan in two straight sets 21-16, 21-18 which lasted for 46 minutes.

PV Sindhu cruise to an easy 21-10, 21-15 win over Aya Ohori of Japan. It was a dominating performance by the World Champion who started the first game on a resounding note with 11-4 lead at the interval. After the interval, Sindhu looked in complete control to win the first game easily.

In the 2nd game, Ohori gave some fight initially before Sindhu showed her dominance over the Japanese opponent. This was her 8th successive win over Ohori. She will take on Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. Tai defeated Sung Ji Hyun in three sets 21-18, 16-21, 21-10. It promises to be a mouth-watering clash between the top two female shuttlers.

In the men’s singles, Sameer Verma went down fighting to Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in two straight sets 19-21, 20-22. The Indians had chances of winning both games but committed mistakes which gave the Malaysian chances and made use of it. In the first game, Sameer was leading 18-12 but Lee showed great fighting spirit to take points in succession to level the score and then win the first set at 21-19.  Sameer Verma could not capitalize in the 2nd game after leading most of the time. Lee converted those chances and won the match easily.

HS Prannoy lost to Kento Momota in two straight sets at 14-21, 16-21. Prannoy was no match for the Japanese in the first game. In the 2nd game, Prannoy had 6-0 lead, but Momota showed his class to outshine India and won the match easily.