Ajay in round two while Saina & Sindhu end their campaign at Malaysia SSP

INDIAN STALWARTS in the women's singles category Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu exit from Malaysia Superseries Premier after their first round loss against Akane Yamaguchi (21-19, 13-21, 15-21) and Chen Yufei (21-18, 19-21, 17-21) respectively.

Both the shuttlers fought their heart out and gave their all in a three game thrilling encounter. Saina who took the court first among the two, was facing a tough opponent in the Japanese Akane. Winning the first game 21-19, she showed great fight and looked like the result will be brighter but Akane came back stronger and won the following two games quite comfortably 21-13, 21-15.

Similar was the case with the recently crowned India SS winner Sindhu. She had a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head count and the Chinese levelled it with this win. Chen showed amazing grit to get back after trailing the first game to take the match in her favour.

On the brighter side, men's singles shuttler Ajay Jayaram showed stunning performance to win his opening round against Qiao Bin in easy straight games 21-11, 21-8. But he faces challenge in the next round as he will face India SS winner and 4th seed Viktor Axelsen.

Men's doubles duo of Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy were defeated by Liao Kuan Hao/Lu Chia Pin after fighting hard 21-18, 18-21, 17-21.

Sai Praneeth went down fighting against the mighty Lin Dan in three games 21-18, 19-21, 18-21. It was also the end of road for mixed doubles duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Sikki Reddy who lost to Kim Astrup/Line 19-21, 21-19, 21-23.

This leaves with Ajay Jayaram as the only Indian shuttler to advance in the tournament.

TFG NEWSLETTER

Get the latest in the world of Sports, Teams, and Players! Free Delivery to your Inbox.