Malaysia Open Super Series Premier: Saina, Sindhu enter second round, srikanth out

Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu cruised into the women’s singles second round at the Malaysia Open Super Series Premier but it turned out to be a disappointing day for the men as two of them made an early exit in Shah Alam on Wednesday.

After a semi-final finish at the India Open last week, Saina made a positive start to her campaign at the $550,000 event as she notched up her sixth win over Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 21-16, 21-7.

Sixth seed Sindhu beat China’s He Bingjiao 21-16, 21-17 in a first round match to avenge her defeat in the 2015 Indonesian Masters and the 2016 Swiss Open.

In the men’s singles, Rio Olympics hopefuls H.S. Prannoy and K. Srikanth failed to cross the opening hurdle. Srikanth, who could not defend his India Open title last week after going down to China’s Tian Houwei 21-23, 21-9, 10-21 in the opening round, continued to find the going tough in super series events.

Swiss Open winner Prannoy fought hard before going down 19-21, 20-22 to India Open champion, Kento Momota of Japan.