Kidambi Srikanth secured a spot in the main draw of the Malaysia Masters, but the rest of the Indian shuttlers were unable to progress past the singles qualifiers, exiting the Super 500 tournament on Tuesday.
Srikanth, who is on a comeback trail, recovered from a first-game loss to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu Kai 9-21, 21-12, 21-6 in his second qualifying men’s singles match.
The 32-year-old, a 2021 World Championships silver medallist, had earlier beaten another Chinese Taipei player, Kuo Kuan Lin, 21-8, 21-13 in the first round.
The former World Number 1 will face a challenging opponent in sixth-seeded Chinese player Lu Guang Zu in the main draw.
In other matches, Tharun Mannepalli fell 13-21, 21-23 to Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul, while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian lost 20-22, 20-22 to China’s Zhu Xuan Chen, both of whom ended their campaigns in the qualification stage.
In women’s singles, Anmol Kharb, who was an integral part of the Asian Team gold medal-winning team last year, was defeated 14-21, 18-21 by Chinese Taipei’s Hung Yi-Ting.
The mixed doubles pair of Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan also bowed out, losing 15-21, 16-21 to the Malaysian duo of Ming Yap Too and Lee Yu Shan.
Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy will begin their respective campaigns at the US $475,000 event on Wednesday.
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