Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag make winning start at Malaysia Open

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 7 (PTI) Returning from a prolonged injury lay-off, PV Sindhu began the new season on a winning note along with the formidable men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy as they entered the second round of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old former world champion, who had opted to withdraw from all BWF World Tour events in October last year to recover from a foot injury, defeated Chinese Taipei's Sung Shuo Yun 21-14, 22-20 in a 51-minutes showdown of the women's singles opening round.

The 18th-ranked Sindhu showed no signs of discomfort as she overcame the lower-ranked Sung for the second time to take her head-to-head to 2-0 and set up a round-of-16 clash with world No.9 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan.

Miyazaki, a 2022 world junior champion, advanced after her 10th-ranked opponent, Sim Yu Jin of South Korea, retired hurt when the Japanese was leading 21-19, 1-2.

Sindhu has a 1-1 record against Miyazaki, whom she beat in the 2025 China Masters during their last meeting.

Later, Satwik and Chirag, the former World No.1 pair, saw off Chinese Taipei's Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Hue 21-13 21-15 in 35 minutes to also 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, however, bowed out in the round of 32 after losing to the lower-ranked American duo of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai 15-21, 21-18, 15-21 following a hard-fought 56-minute contest.

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.

The Panda sisters -- Rutuparna and Swetaparna -- also faced defeat, going down 11-21 9-21 in a lop-sided contest against second seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.

Earlier, Sindhu looked in fine fettle as she took an early 6-2 lead and did not look back, overpowering her opponent in the opening game.

However, the second game turned out to a fiercely-contested one with Sindhu trailing 4-11 at one stage before finally levelling it at 13-all.

But the unrelenting 28-year-old Sung kept pushing and took a three-point lead at 17-14 before the Indian again displayed her fighting qualities to claw back and level at 17-all.

At 20-all, Sindhu grabbed the decisive last two points to win the contest.

In the doubles competition, Satwik and Chirag came into the match with an overwhelming 6-0 record and the Indian duo stamped its authority to lead from start to finish in the opening game.

The Taiwanese duo put up a better show in the second game, staying close till 12-12 when Satwik and Chirag changed gears and closed out the match. PTI AM/ATK PM ATK PM PM