PV Sindhu and Satwik-Chirag move into QFs

 

 

STAR shuttler PV Sindhu produced an impressive performance, defeating Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki to book her spot in the women’s singles quarter-finalsbut India’s challenge ended in the men’s sing lesat the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Thursday. Former world champion Sindhu, returning after a long injury lay-off,defeated the eighth seeded Miyazaki 21-8, 21-13in 33 minutes.

 

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, will take on third-seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi, a three-time world champion, who defeated China’s Gao Fang Jie 21- 11 4-21 21-17 in another match. Top men’s pair of Satwik sairaj Ranki reddy and Chirag Shetty (Sat-Chi), who won a second bronze at world championships last year, also sailed into the quarter-finals with a 21-18 21-12 win over Malaysia’s World No 17 Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 39 minutes.

 

The former World No1 Indians, who reached the finals of Hong Kong Open and China Masters in 2025, thus extended their head to-head record against the Malaysian pair to 4–0. The Asian Games champions will next face the winners of the clash between Chinese Taipei’s Chen Zhi Ray/Lin Yu Chieh and sixth seeds Fajar Alfian/Fikri Muhammad of Indonesia.

 

However, it was curtains for ace Indian men’s player Lakshya Sen andyoung Ayush Shetty who both lost at thepre-quarter-final stage. Sen,who had broken the three year jinx of first-round exits in the tournament when he defeated Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh on Wednesday, succumbed in the pre-quarter-finals to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 22-22 15-21 in 53 minutes. Shetty went down fighting against top seed Shi Yu Qi of China 18-21, 21-18, 12-12 ina 70- minute slug fest.

 

Sindhu vs Miyazaki Itwas Sindhu, 30, who continued to impress on come back by notching her second win against Miyazaki to take her career head to-head to 2-1 against the Japanese teenager. Sindhu raced to a 5–1 lead and then reeled off 13 consecutive points to surge to a commanding 18-4 advantage, before comfortably closing out the opening game in no time.