Malaysia Open: PV Sindhu storms into quarterfinals with straight-games win
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India’s star shuttler PV Sindhu delivered a dominant performance at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 on Thursday, defeating Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki to advance to the women’s singles quarterfinals.
Returning after a long injury lay-off, the former world champion outclassed the eighth-seeded Miyazaki 21-8, 21-13 in just 33 minutes. The win marked Sindhu’s second career victory over the Japanese teenager, taking her head-to-head record to 2-1.
Sindhu took early control of the match, racing to a 5-1 lead in the opening game before reeling off 13 consecutive points to surge ahead 18-4. She closed out the first game comfortably. The second game followed a similar pattern, though Miyazaki briefly narrowed the gap to 8-9. Sindhu then used her experience to pull away, moving to a 17-11 lead and sealing the match without difficulty.
The 30-year-old will next face the winner of the pre-quarterfinal clash between China’s Gao Fang Jie and Japan’s third seed Akane Yamaguchi.
In the men’s singles, it was the end of the road for India’s Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty. Sen, who had snapped a three-year first-round exit streak earlier in the tournament, lost to Hong Kong China’s Lee Cheuk Yiu in the pre-quarterfinals in a 53-minute contest. Shetty put up a strong fight but was beaten by top seed Shi Yu Qi of China in a 70-minute match.
Earlier, former world number one men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a straight-games win over Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Hue.