Kuala Lumpur: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu had to toil hard before emerging victorious in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters while compatriot Saina Nehwal made a second consecutive first-round exit here on Wednesday.
The seventh-seeded Sindhu took close to an hour to knock out China's He Bing Jiao 21-13 17-21 21-15 and move to the second round.
With this win, world number seven Sindhu exacted revenge for her first-round exit from the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month, when Bing Jiao had defeated her in straight games. The Chinese still leads the head to head 10-9.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina, on the other hand, squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-16 17-21 14-21 to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea.
The world number 24 Indian had also made a first-round exit from the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament last week.
In the men's singles, B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap moved to the second round with contrasting wins.
While Praneeth hardly broke a sweat against Kevin Cordon, registering an easy 21-8 21-9 win over the Guatemalan in less than half an hour, Kashyap came back from a one-game deficit to dispatch local favourite Tommy Sugiarto 16-21 21-16 21-16.
Praneeth will take on Li Shi Feng in the pre-quarterfinals.
However, it was the end of the road for Sameer Verma, who went down fighting to fourth seed Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen 21-10 12-21 14-21.
Later in the day, HS Prannoy and the women's doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa will be in action.
The seventh seed Sindhu took close to an hour to knock out Bing Jiao 21-13 17-21 21-15 and move to the second round.
By virtue of the win, the world number seven Sindhu extracted her revenge for her first round exit from the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month when Bing Jiao had defeated her in straight games. The Chinese still leads the head to head 10-9.
In the men's singles, B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap moved to the second round with contrasting wins.
While Verma broke hardly broke a sweat against Kevin Cordon, registering an easy 21-8 21-9 win over Guatemalan in less than half an hour, Kashyap came back from a one-game deficit to dispatch local favourite Tommy Sugiarto 16-21 21-16 21-16.
Verma will take on Li Shi Feng in the pre-quarterfinals.
However, it was the end of the road for Sameer Verma, who went down fighting to fourth seed Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen 21-10 12-21 14-21.
Later in the day, HS Prannoy, Saina Nehwal and the women's doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa will be in action.