Former world champion PV Sindhu marked her return from injury with a confident win, while the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also progressed to the second round of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Playing her first BWF World Tour event since October last year, Sindhu defeated Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun 21-14, 22-20 in the women’s singles opening round.
The 30-year-old, who had taken an extended break to recover from a foot injury, showed little sign of rust during the 51-minute contest.
Sindhu dominated the opening game after taking an early lead, but was tested in the second as Sung mounted a strong challenge.
Trailing 4-11 at one stage, the Indian shuttler fought back to level the game before holding her nerve at 20-all to close out the match.
The victory extended Sindhu’s head-to-head record against Sung to 2-0.
The Indian will next face Japan’s world No. 9 Tomoka Miyazaki in the round of 16. Miyazaki advanced after South Korea’s Sim Yu Jin retired hurt during their first-round match.
Sindhu and Miyazaki are tied 1-1 in previous meetings, with the Indian winning their most recent clash at the 2025 China Masters.
In men’s doubles, former world No. 1 pair Satwik and Chirag eased past Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Hue 21-13, 21-15 in 35 minutes to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals.
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The Asian Games champions controlled the match from the outset, asserting their dominance in the opening game before pulling away late in the second. They will next take on Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.
Other Indian pairs, however, endured mixed fortunes.
The mixed doubles duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto exited in the opening round after a three-game loss to Americans Presley Smith and Jennie Gai.
In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down fighting to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari, while the Panda sisters, Rutuparna and Swetaparna, suffered a straight-game defeat to second-seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.
