Srikanth enters Malaysia Masters quarterfinal, Prannoy suffers loss

Kuala Lumpur: Seasoned Indian badminton player Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarterfinals of Malaysia Masters after defeating Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in his second-round match but H S Prannoy bowed out with a straight game loss here on Thursday.

In the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals, the duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto beat France's Julien Maio and Lea Palermo 21-17 18-21 21-15.

Prannoy, however, suffered a 9-21 18-21 defeat to Japan's Yushi Tanaka in his men's singles pre-quarterfinal match.

In the day's other pre-quarterfinal matches involving Indian players, Ayush Shetty lost to France's Toma Popov 13-21 17-21, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran went down to Christo Popov of France 14-21 16-21.

In the women's doubles round of 16 outing, Prerana Alvekar and Mrunmayee Deshpande lost to Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun 9-21 14-21.

Srikanth prevailed 23-21, 21-17 in the 59-minute showdown against world number 33 Nguyen.

Srikanth, whose world ranking has plummeted to 65 owing to a prolonged lean patch, will face France's Toma Popov in the last-eight stage.

Also bowing out was Sathish Karunakaran. He was beaten 14-21, 16-21 by Toma's brother and doubles partner Christo Popov.

In the doubles competition, Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila advanced to the quarterfinals of the mixed event with a 21-17, 18-21, 21-15 victory over France's Lea Palermo and Julien Maio.

They will next be up against the Chinese combination of Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin.