Lee Zii Jia: Singles stars P.V Sindhu and Ashmita Chaliha were the lone Indian players remaining in the draw as the top women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, the seventh seeds, crashed out of the Malaysia Masters 2024 here on Thursday.
Two-time Olympic medallist and former Malaysia Masters winner Sindhu defeated a Korean opponent in three games while Ashmita stunned the third seed from Malaysia in 43 minutes as both stormed into the women’s singles quarterfinals.
In men’s singles, Kiran George went down to fifth-seeded Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in straight games while in men’s doubles, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K. were ousted in straight games in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sindhu stormed into the quarterfinals as the 27-year-old player seeded fifth in the event, prevailed over Sim Yu Jin of South Korea in three games, emerging winner 21-13, 12-21, 21-14 in a minute under one hour.
Sindhu won 10 consecutive points in the first game to come back from 8-10 down to surge to an 18-10 lead before wrapping up the first game at 21-13. In the second game, the Korean player turned the tables on the Indian star as she opened the lead from 10-all and then went on to win the game 21-12.
In the decider, the Korean player Sim Yu Jin opened up an early lead at 2-8 before the Indian star caught up at 8-8 and went on to open a 13-8 lead, winning five points in a row. She went on to ride her dominance and clinched the game at 21-14 and clinched the match and a place in the last eight.
Ashmita too faced a tough struggle as she got the better of Malaysia’s third-seed Beiwen Zhang as she won 21-19, 16-21, 21-12 in 43 minutes.
In women’s singles, Treesa and Gayatri suffered a huge setback as they went down to the Chinese Taipei pair of Sung Shuo Yun and Yu Chien Hui, going down 21-18, 20-22, 21-14 in a 70-minute marathon.
The second Indian pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker fell to top seed of Malaysia’s second seeds Tan Pearly and Thinaah Muralitharan 21-17, 21-11 in 58 minutes at Court 1 at the Axiata Arena in the Malaysian capital.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy fell to top seeds Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia 21-9, 21-15.
