Indian shuttlers make dismal start

Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy failed to cross the opening hurdle at the season-opening USD 350,000 Malaysia Masters here on Tuesday.

Sikki and Pranaav suffered a 18-21, 17-21 loss to seventh seed Hong Kong pair of Lee Chun Hei Reginald and Chau Hoi Wahto to begin the international season on a disappointing note.

Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan reached the second round of the mixed doubles after getting a walkover from Australian combo of Sawan Serasinghe and Setyana Mapasa.

With the Premier Badminton League coming to an end last Sunday, Indian shuttlers, including P Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth, decided to take part in the Malaysia Masters, which is one of the seven BWF World Tour Super 500 event.

However, it was a dismal start to the international calendar for most Indians as they failed to cross the opening hurdle.

In the men's singles qualifier, Kashyap suffered a 14-21, 17-21 loss to Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen, while Subhankar Dey lost 21-11, 11-21, 9-21 to Denmark's Kim Bruun.

In women's doubles qualifiers, Aparna Balan and Sruthi KP lost to Singapore pair of Ong Ren-Ne and Wong Jia Ying Crystal 12-21, 21-18, 15-21, while Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant suffered a 20-22, 18-21 defeat to Malaysian pair of Chiew Sien Lim and Zhen Yap.

Praneeth will face Kantaphon Wangcharoen on Wednesday, while women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will take on German combo of Johanna Goliszewski and Kaepplein Lara.