Malaysia Masters: Saina, Sindhu cruise to 2nd round; Sai Praneeth, Srikanth bow out

• Sarwar Alam
• 08 January, 2020

By: Sarwar Alam

Star shuttler Saina Nehwal sailed into the second round with a convincing win over Belgium’s Lianne Tan but World championships bronze-medallist B. Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

The London Olymics bronze medallist Saina beat Tan 21-15 21-17 in just 36 minutes of action. This was the first time the two were facing each other.

Saina, who claimed the Indonesia Masters last year has struggled since making a series of early exits in the rest of the year.

Earlier, Praneeth made a first round exit after going down tamely to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 11-21 15-21.

Srikanth lost his second seed encounter to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen 17-21 5-21 in only 30 minutes.