Kuala Lumpur: India’s HS Prannoy and Satish Karunakaran pulled off impressive upsets to advance to the second round of the Malaysia Masters, while PV Sindhu’s struggles continued with a first-round exit on Wednesday.
Prannoy kicked off the day with a gritty performance, overcoming Japan’s fifth seed Kenta Nishimoto in a tense battle that stretched over 82 minutes.
After dropping the first game, he bounced back strongly to win 19-21, 21-17, 21-16.
Karunakaran followed up with an even more dominant display, dismantling third seed Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei in straight games, 21-13, 21-14, in just 39 minutes.
India’s strong showing in men’s singles continued with youngster Ayush Shetty also moving into the next round.
He recovered from a slow start to defeat Canada’s Brian Yang 20-22, 21-10, 21-8.
However, it was a disappointing outing for PV Sindhu.
The two-time Olympic medallist was unable to break her recent slump, falling in the first round to Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh.
Despite a second-game resurgence, Sindhu lost 11-21, 21-14, 15-21, marking another early exit in her 2025 campaign.
