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 in Dubai on Thursday, February 16.
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. Later, the mixed doubles combine of Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar beat Toh Ee Wei and Chen Tang Jie 21-19, 19-21, 21-16 to give India a 4-1 victory.
India had earlier beaten Kazakhstan and UAE 5-0 each in their first two group matches.
