Malaysia Masters: Prannoy, Sindhu, Srikanth reach quarters, Lakshya Sen bows out

Star Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu, and HS Prannoy booked their places in the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters with contrasting wins over their respective rivals on Thursday.

As three Indians moved to the quarter-finals, Lakshya Sen bowed out after losing to NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong.

While double Olympic medallist and sixth seed Sindhu disposed of Aya Ohori of Japan in straight games in women's singles, Prannoy had to dig deep to get the better of Shi Feng Li of China in a tough three-game men's singles contest and Kidambi Srikanth stunned world number 5 Kunalvut Vitidsarn in straight sets.

Taking the court first, world No.13 Sindhu extended her domination over Ohori, ranked 28th, taking just 40 minutes to beat the Japanese 21-16, 21-11 in the round of 16.

Sindhu, thus, enjoys a commanding 12-0 head-to-head record against Ohori.

Sindhu will face China's Yi Man Zhang in the quarterfinals.

World No. 9 Prannoy then overcame a game deficit to beat world No.11 Li 13-21, 21-16, 21-11 in one hour and 10 minutes to book his berth in the last-eight stage.

Feng started comfortably in the first game and defeated Prannoy 21-13. In the second game, Prannoy pulled the trigger to confuse Feng with his brilliant shot selection.

Feng was clueless in the second game and lost 21-16. Prannoy ran to an early lead of 11-5 in the decider and then displayed his array of shots to register a famous comeback win.

Prannoy will next meet Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the next game.

Up against eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Kidambi Srikanth started on a bad note by trailing 1-8. Kidambi found his rhythm when his smashes landed.

He brought the lead to 19-19 and then played a beautiful deceptive shot to outfox Vitidsarn and win the game 21-19.

The second game followed the same pattern as Vitidsarn ran to a big lead before Srikanth pulled back the game in his favor and won 21-19.

Kidambi Srikanth will meet Christian Adinata of Indonesia in the quarter-finals.

The last Indian shuttler to feature, Lakshya Sen went down tamely against Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in straight sets 21-14, 21-19. Lakshya looked like a shadow of himself from the first round and was clueless against the superior play of Angus.