Kuala Lumpur. Two-time Olympic medalist P V Sindhu made her return from injury to suffer a first-round defeat while in-form H S Prannoy maintained his fine form to take on his compatriots in a thriller at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament on Wednesday. Lakshya Sen defeated Sindhu, seeded sixth, was making a comeback after fracturing her left ankle after winning the Commonwealth Games gold in August. She was beaten by Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain by 21. 12, 10.21, 21. 15 beat. Earlier, Prannoy, who was ranked world number eight last year, came back from a game down to beat 10th-ranked Sen 22. 24, 21. 12, 21. 18 beat.
The 30-year-old Prannoy from Kerala will next face Chiko Ora Bi Wordoyo of Indonesia. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also beat Korea’s Choi Sol Yoo and Kim Won Ho in 21. 16, 21. Reached the pre quarter finals by defeating 13. They will now face Indonesia’s Mohammad Shohibul Fikri and Babas Maulana. Malvika Bansod from Korea’s An Seong in the first round 9. 21, 13. Lost to 21. In women’s doubles, Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam lost to Thailand’s S Paewasampran and Putita S in the first round. 21, 13. Lost to 21. Prannoy and Sen have clashed five times in the last year in which Sen has won 3. were ahead of 2. In this match, both started on a brisk note and Prannoy started with a two point lead.
Sen, however, soon made a comeback to score 13. 13 done. Score 19 after some controversial line calls. was 19. Sen scored a point but lost it immediately. Prannoy too could not hold the lead and lost the first game. Prannoy in the second game 4. 1 lead when Sen made several unforced errors. He showed aggression but Pranay was way ahead of him. Prannoy won the game with a nine point lead. In the deciding game, Sen scored 8. Made a lead of 4 but Prannoy soon came back with 9.9. Since then he did not give Sen a chance to return.
Also read: Malaysia Open: Prannoy beats compatriot Lakshya Sen
Sindhu’s earlier record against Marin was 5. Was of 9. Marin took the lead from the start of the match and easily won the first game. In the second game, Sindhu took a seven-point lead at the break with Marin finding most of her shots hitting the net. Sindhu came back after winning this game but in the deciding game, Marin did not give any chance to Sindhu by showing aggressive play.
