Badminton Asia Team Championship: India’s two-time Olympic Games medallist P.V. Sindhu will return to action after a lengthy injury break when she steps onto the court against Kristy Gilmour of Scotland in the opening round of women’s singles of the Malaysia Masters 2024 at the Axiata Arena on Wednesday.
Seeded fifth in the event Sindhu, who has won the Malaysia Masters in 2013 and 2016, will take on the World No. 22 from Scotland last played in the Badminton Asia Team Championship in February this year.
The 28-year-old Sindhu, who returned to action from a lengthy injury break, recently sat out of the Uber Cup and Thailand Open recently will be starting her preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Besides Sindhu, the other Indians in the draw are youngsters Ashmita Chaliha, Unnati Hooda, and Aakarshi Kashyap in the women’s singles main draw.
Aakarshi Kashyap will start her campaign against second-seeded Wang Zhi Yi of China, Unnati Hooda will take on Gao Fang Jie of China while Ashmita Chaliha will meet Lin Su Yu of Chinese Taipei in another first-round match on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in the qualification rounds, Tanya Hemanth went down to Lin Sih Yun of Chinese Taipei 23-31, 21-8 while Ayush Shetty went down to Pantichaphon Teeraratsakul of Thailand 23-21, 16-21, 21-17 in a hard-fought match.
The good news for India is that the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded seventh in the event, defeated Chinese Taipei pair Yu–Hsun Huang and Ting Yu Liang 21-14, 21-10 in straight games.
In qualification rounds, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran defeated June Wei Cheam of Malaysia 21-18, 21-19 in men’s singles while in women’s singles, Ayush Shetty went past compatriot Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-7, 21-14.
