Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy and country's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved into the second round of the Malaysia Open 2022 at the Axiata Arena, here on Tuesday.
World No 21 Prannoy, who moved up two places in the latest badminton world rankings after reaching the Indonesia Open semis earlier this month, beat world No 30 Liew Daren of Malaysia 21-14, 17-21, 21-18 in one hour and two minutes.
Though Daren began the first game with a 2-0 lead, Prannoy snatched the initiative with six consecutive points. The Malaysian then tried to put up a late fight but Indian shuttler protected his lead to go 1-0 up in the match.
Daren, a 2018 world championships bronze medallist, found his footing in the second game and matched Prannoy's stride by stride. Level at 16-all, Liew Daren struck four straight points to put the game beyond Prannoy's reach.
Both shuttlers were on guard in the decider. Despite HS Prannoy keeping his nose ahead for the most part, Liew Daren kept chipping in with crucial points. However, with the score at 18-17, Prannoy broke free, winning four of the next five points to pocket the match.
This was Prannoy's seventh win over Liew Daren in 11 matches.The 29-year old will face world No 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the second round.
Later in the day, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, competing for the first time since India's historic Thomas Cup win in May, beat Malaysia's Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee 21-18, 21-11 to move into the next round of the BWF Super 750 event.
However, the women's duo of Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy and former worlds bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth suffered early exits.
Ponnappa-Sikki Reddy lost to Japan's Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida 15-21, 11-21 while world No 19 B Sai Praneeth lost to world No 6 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia 15-21, 21-19, 9-21.
Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be seen in action in the first round of women's singles on Wednesday. Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth are not competing at the Kuala Lumpur meet.
