Badminton, Malaysia Masters Super 500: PV Sindhu beats Kristy Gilmour; Kiran George advances

Returning to the court after more than a month, India’s PV Sindhu started off her 2024 Malaysia Masters Super 500 campaign in dominating fashion as she registered a straight-games victory over Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour on Wednesday.

The double Olympic medallist took 46 minutes to brush past Gilmour 21-17, 21-16 in what was the first match of the day on Court 2 of the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

Sindhu, who had skipped the Thomas and Uber Cup last month in order to prepare for the Paris Olympics, raced to a 7-1 lead in the first game. While the Scottish shuttler did bounce back to level up at 15-15 the Indian asserted her dominance once again late in the game as she pocketed it 21-17.

Sindhu continued to cruise after the change of sides in the second game as she raced to an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval. The five-point gap was too much to close for Gilmour as Sindhu wrapped up the game 21-16 to move into the women’s singles Round of 16.

Later in the day, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy got the better of qualifiers Lui Chun Wai and Fu Chi Yan 21-15, 12-21, 21-17 in 47 minutes.

Ashmita Chaliha also made her way into the women’s singles second round 21-17, 21-16 victory over over Lin Sih Yun of Chinese Taipei.

Meanwhile, Unnati Hooda, who was promoted to the main draw went down 13-21, 18-21 in straight games to Gao Fang Jie.

Aakarshi Kashyap also failed to progress into the second round as she was defeated 22-24, 13-21 by second-seeded Chinese Wang Zhi Yi.

Kiran George advanced to the Round of 16 after defeating Japan's Takuma Obayashi in straight games (21-16, 21-17) in a match that lasted 41 minutes.

In men's doubles, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek dominated their Taiwanese opponents, securing a comfortable victory with a tight score of 23-21 in the first game and a commanding 21-11 win in the second.

Meanwhile, the pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath went down 16-21, 13-21 to the sixth seeds Dejan Ferdinansyah and Gloria Widjaja, from Indonesia, to bow out of the competition.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too had won their first round match 21-14, 21-10 against Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu-Hsun and Liang Ting Yu.