Badminton star PV Sindhu has advanced to the second round of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament with a straight-games victory over Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun, winning by 21-13, 22-20 in the women’s singles opening round. The eighth-seeded Sindhu will next face Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki in the second round. The former world champion is playing her first international match since recovering from a foot injury last year.

 

Later, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Hue by 21-13, 21-15 in 35 minutes to enter the pre-quarterfinals. The Asian Games champions, who had reached the semifinals of the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in December, will face Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.

 

The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, ranked 17th in the world, bowed out after losing to the lower-ranked American duo of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai by 15-21, 21-18, 15-21. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who won their second Syed Modi International Super 300 crown in December, put up a fight before losing 9-21, 23-21, 19-21 in a 66-minute battle against Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari.