Sindhu in fil, Srikanth bows out of Malaysia Masters

Peng, Jan 23: A former winner here, Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu came out with a stupendous and gritty performance to oust South Korean top seed Sung Ji Hyun and enter the women’s singles fil of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold here on Saturday.

However, it was the end of the road for Sindhu’s compatriot Kidambi Srikanth who went down in his men’s singles semi-fil in straight games to local boy Iskandar Zulkarin Zainuddin at the Spice Are.

The second seeded Indian gave a tough fight in the first game, only to lose it by a close margin of 25-27. But Srikanth completely lost steam in the second game to go down 9-21 in 48 minutes.

Backed by the vociferous crowd, the World No.51 Malaysian maged to beat World No.9 Srikanth for the first time in two outings.

Earlier in the day, third seed Sindhu came out on top, beating her World No.8 opponent 21-19, 12-21, 21-10 in a marathon match that lasted an hour and nine minutes.

The World No.12 Hyderabadi, a winner here in 2013, brought out the best in her to extend her record to 4-2 in career meetings over Sung. This was Sindhu’s first win over the South Korean since October 2013 as Sung had won the previous two meets.

The double World Championship bronze medallist will be up against Scottish Kirsty Gilmour in the fil on Sunday. The Scot won the only time they played each other — at the 2013 French Open. IANS