Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy booked their places in the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters with contrasting wins over their respective rivals on Thursday. While double Olympic medallist and sixth seed Sindhu disposed of Aya Ohori of Japan in straight games in women’s singles, Prannoy had to dig deep to get the better of Shi Feng Li of China in a tough three-game men’s singles contest.
Taking the court first, world No. 13 Sindhu extended her domination over Ohori, ranked 28th, taking just 40 minutes to beat the Japanese 21-16, 21-11 in the round of 16.
Sindhu, thus, enjoys a commanding 12-0 head-to-head record against Ohori.
Sindhu will face China’s Yi Man Zhang in the quarterfinals.
World No. 9 Prannoy then overcame a game deficit to beat world No.11 Li 13-21, 21-16, 21-11 in one hour and 10 minutes to book his berth in the last-eight stage.
Prannoy will next meet the winner of the match between third seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto.
Later in the day, Lakshya Sen will be seen in action against Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong while Kidambi Srikanth will play eight seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in their respective men’s singles round-of-16 matches.
