India in Asia Mixed Team Badminton quarterfinals as group topper

Dubai, Feb 16 (PTI) Star shuttlers P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy won their respective singles matches as India made it to the quarterfinals of the Asia Mixed Team Badminton Championships as group toppers after defeating Malaysia here on Thursday.

Prannoy began the proceedings for India in their final Group B match and had to fight hard against world no.4 Zii Jia Lee before stunning his rival 18-21 21-13 25-23 in the men’s singles match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes.

In contrast, Sindhu took just 34 minutes to beat lower-ranked Ling Ching Wong 21-13 21-17 in the women’s singles and give India 2-0 lead.

But the men’s doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Chirag Shetty suffered a 16-21 10-21 defeat to the duo of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik as Malaysia made it 1-2.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand then gave India the winning 3-1 lead as they shocked Commonwealth Games champions Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharanto 23-21 21-15 to hand India an unassailable 3-1 lead

India had earlier beaten Kazakhstan and UAE 5-0 each in their first two group matches.