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...

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