6.20 pm: So, to recap, two wins for Indian shuttlers today, one coming at the expense of another Indian. HS Prannoy defeated Lakshya Sen in their sixth meeting and while he carries on, Sen will get time prepare for the 7th meeting scheduled for next week in Delhi. It was a welcome sight to see PV Sindhu back on court but an aggressive Marin was just a bit too good for the Indian in the end. In a three-game battle, the Spaniard prevailed but Sindhu can take positives. And finally, Satwik-Chirag looked solid (and we can’t stress that enough) in their win against Choi-Kim in what was, on paper, a tougher first-round mixture than they made it look.
Round of 16 matches on Thursday:
WD: Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand vs Stoeva sisters (approx. 8.20 am)
MS: HS Prannoy vs Dwi Wardoyo (approx. 1140 am)
MD: Satwik-Chirag vs Fikr-Maulana (approx 3.10 pm)
Recap of Indian results on day 2:
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 21-18 Lakshya Sen
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 21-15 PV Sindhu
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 13-21 Satwik-Chirag
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 13-21 An Se Young
Women’s doubles round of 32, Shikha-Ashwini 10-21, 12-21 Paewsampran-Supajirakul
Highlights of Satwik-Chirag’s win:
State of play for Indians: So after the opening round of fixtures (that saw some brutal draws handed out to them), Satwik-Chirag, Prannoy and Treesa-Gayatri are the ones who will be in action in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Women’s doubles: A little while earlier, Ashwini Bahat/Shikha Gautam went down in straight games.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 21-15 PV Sindhu: That’s that from that match. Not to be for PV Sindhu but there were some good signs on her comeback. In the battle of former world champs, the Indian fought well after a slow start. Liked her movement, seemed solid. Carolina Marin extends her H2H to 10-5.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 21-15 PV Sindhu: That trusted body attack to the rescue for Marin and it is a hard-fought win for the Spaniard. But good signs for Sindhi on her comeback, the movement and attacks were sharp for the most part. She will only get better from here, hopefully.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 20-15 PV Sindhu: And a missed chance for Sindhu, an error from round-the-head shot. Didn’t trust her backhand enough there. Marin makes a service error.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 19-14 PV Sindhu: A significant break in play for towelling down.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 19-14 PV Sindhu: Good service return and now or never for Sindhu. She closes the gap down with a terrific crosscourt winner.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 18-12 PV Sindhu: Sindhu on the backfoot now constantly and it seems Marin has the finish line in sight.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 16-12 PV Sindhu: Sindhu with a hesitant challenge and it is, not unsurprisingly from her, a terrible challenge. And hey, it gets her serve back after an error from Marin and another error from the Spaniard follows so maybe Sindhu knows what she was doing!
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 15-10 PV Sindhu: Super rally but ends with a forehand error from Sindhu.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 14-10 PV Sindhu: Something of a gift from Marin and Sindhu needs a run of points right here. Picks up one more on serve with a nice straight smash,
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 14-8 PV Sindhu: Sindhu definitely feeling the heat at the moment, Marin has upped the tempo from the far side and the Indian is reacting a bit late.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 13-8 PV Sindhu: Sindhu with a roar as she gets a smash right but gives the serve right back.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 12-7 PV Sindhu: Sindhu needs to get the gap down quickly here at the change of ends... but it is Marin who starts with a good point.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 11-7 PV Sindhu: Sindhu shouldn’t mind this too much... a four-point deficit at the final change of ends. But the Indian has played well and will now get to finish from the good end, so to speak.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 9-7 PV Sindhu: Sindhu with all her might, with a body smash. Gets the serve back. Next point, the Indian deals with a couple of clears and then forces a error from Marin.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 9-5 PV Sindhu: Sindhu struggling a little bit to deal with Marin’s pushes to the back-court.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 8-5 PV Sindhu: Fine service return from Sindhu. A terrific rally follows, that ends with an error from Sindhu.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 7-4 PV Sindhu: And Marin continues to try and push Sindhu back with her clears every time the Indian looks to take a step forward to close out points. Terrific tactical battle. (Scores corrected in the last couple of updates)
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 5-4 PV Sindhu: Another push to Sindhu’s forehand corner by Marin but this time Sindhu responds with a great clear herself. Terrific rally goes Sindhu’s way. And next point, Marin slips after losing her footing. Worrying that but she is OK.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 2-4 PV Sindhu: And a good start to he decider by Marin. Sindhu will need to be careful with not letting the Spaniard get away with a big lead before the change of ends. A stunning push to the backcourt by Marin gives her a 4-1 lead and Sindhu responds with a trademark smash.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-21 PV Sindhu: And we are heading to a decider. The fact that this game lasted longer despite fewer points being played should tell you it was a good contest even though the scoreline doesn’t suggest that.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 10-19 PV Sindhu: A hardcore follower of Sindhu believes her backhand seems to have improved, hard to argue there. Even if not winners, she has used the backhand to find some good pockets on Marin’s side of the court. Worth keeping an eye on.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 8-15 PV Sindhu: Glorious backhand winner from Sindhu at the end of a fine rally. A break in play after that, perhaps a little tactical from Marin.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 7-12 PV Sindhu: Great disguise on the drop from Marin and a big roar! But Sindhu with an important point next, with a good kill at the net.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 6-11 PV Sindhu: Great crosscourt idea, well executed too this time by Marin. Looks like a ploy from her to take the shuttle off the net early. Short lift from Sindhu next point and Marin gobbles that up. Gap closing.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 4-11 PV Sindhu: Good quality from both now. Sindhu with a fist-bump as a lovely crosscourt ideal from Marin goes just wide. Sindhu takes a hany lead into the interval.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12, 2-8 PV Sindhu: Good start to the opening game for the Indian, there we go. Carrying on from the end of the opener. Playing with greater control and Marin with errors.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 21-12 PV Sindhu: Game 1, Marin. But if Sindhu can take some confidence from the second half of the opening game, we should have a good contest here. She grew into the match after an understandably rusty start.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 20-12 PV Sindhu: Super rally again and it ends with Marin catching the line. Game points.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 19-12 PV Sindhu: Sindhu finishing the game strongly, should help for game 2.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 19-10 PV Sindhu: Super disguised drop by Sindhu and she reaches doubles figures.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 17-9 PV Sindhu: Sindhu plays arguably the best point of her match so far, finishing with a nice DTL winner. The rallies are getting better now and the Indian will be disappointed at an error after a good exchange. She catches the line next rally.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 15-6 PV Sindhu: Sindhu’s decision to start on the bad end, is being debated on air by Steen and Clark at the moment. They believe it shows her confidence in bouncing back if the start doesn’t go well. But she must be careful though, Marin is a great fronrunner.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 11-3 PV Sindhu: Sindhu gets the serve back after a good rally but gives it right away on a serve error. Marin with a big lead at the interval.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin 7-1 PV Sindhu: Strong start from Marin but there were a couple of points there where Sindhu was guilty of not finishing off good chances.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin vs PV Sindhu: We are underway.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin vs PV Sindhu: It’s time for the blockbuster rematch of 2016 Olympic finals. Meeting No 15 between on the international circuit between Sindhu and Marin. Here’s a look at the past 14, where Marin leads 9-5.
Women’s singles round of 32, Carolina Marin vs PV Sindhu: A look at the careers of two of the modern game’s greatest.
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu vs Carolina Marin will have to wait a bit....
PV Sindhu vs Carolina Marin to follow this...
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 13-21 Satwik-Chirag: Mighty impressive win for Satwik-Chirag. They just made a really good Korean pair look a little bit ordinary. This, to be honest, is a good match-up for the Indians. The Koreans are great defensively but it’s a style the Indians can handle. But as the match point showed, SatChi can defend when they need to as well, winning a rally that they were on the backfoot on for the most part.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 13-20 Satwik-Chirag: Match points galore, but the Koreans sae one.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 12-17 Satwik-Chirag: Now the finish line is in sight for the Indians.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 9-16 Satwik-Chirag: Not the first time, certainly not the last, Chirag with a “maar!” to Satwik and his partner obliges. A rally that the Indians were on the backfoot mostly but they win it in the end. Terrific from them.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21, 7-11 Satwik-Chirag: Ok, time to turn our attention to the doubles battle (which we only had an eye on while HSP-LS was heading for a thrilling finish). SatChi have a healthy lead in the interval.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 21-18 Lakshya Sen: The head-to-head on World Tour is now 3-3 between these two as they meet in the first round of India Open next week.
Aditya Chaturvedi: HS Prannoy defeats Lakshya Sen! What a comeback that was from HSP. He’s delighted at the end even as Lakshya throws his racket, disappointed with the umpire’s call on match point. That was a superb contest, though. Prannoy had it all to do after losing a tight opening game but he remained confident throughout and dictated play from thereon.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 21-18 Lakshya Sen: A slightly controversial end as HS Prannoy plays a brilliant backhand block that seems to have just caught the line but Lakshya, who was closest to it, felt otherwise. Prannoy roars in celebration, Lakshya throws his racket away in frustration but in the moments after that, the now-familiar embrace at the net between two good friends. What a battle.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 20-18 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya with an error in judgement at the back court and match points for Prannoy. The youngster saves one with a good crosscourt winner.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 19-16 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya was closing the gap again but Prannoy wins a superb rally and lets out a big roar!
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 16-21 Satwik-Chirag: Indians take the lead. Once they found their attacking groove and got the Koreans lifting, Satwik-Chirag dominated the proceedings.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 16-14 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya’s turn to close the gap now.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 14-11 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya Sen seem to be needing some patching up for an injury.
Aditya Chaturvedi: What a fightback by Prannoy! He trailed by five points at the start of the third game but has the lead going into the interval. Lakshya is struggling to put HSP under enough pressure and will need raise his game by a notch or two. The momentum is surely with HSP.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 15-18 Satwik-Chirag: Superb attacking from the Indians and they are closing in on the opening game.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 11-10 Lakshya Sen: Lovely rally! And at the end of a fabulous exchange, Prannoy has the lead at the final change of ends.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 10-10 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya under pressure now as Prannoy takes the lead but we are back level after a brilliant rally and proactivenes at the net by the youngster.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 12-12 Satwik-Chirag: Oh fantastic rally again! Great defence from the Indians but the Koreans take the point in the end. Break in play as Chirag stepped out of bounds and tore the mat up a little bit.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 6-8 Lakshya Sen: Lakshya came out of the blocks strongly in the third game and raced to a 7-2 lead. Prannoy seems to be settling down now and has reduced the deficit to two points but he still has a lot left to do, says Aditya.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 10-11 Satwik-Chirag: One good review earlier but the Indians don’t get their second challenger right. But they do have the lead at the interval after a superb serve return by Chirag.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 2-6 Lakshya Sen: Serve error by Sen to hand a gift to Prannoy.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12, 0-4 Lakshya Sen: Sen starts the decider well.
Aditya Chaturvedi: We are going to a decider! Prannoy was solid in the second while Lakshya was a bit up and down. But we should perhaps not read too much into it and the third game will be another huge tussle in all likelihood. HSP has momentum on his side and gaining an early advantage here will be crucial.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 21-12 Lakshya Sen: And we have a decider on Court 4. Prannoy ran away it after the mid-game inteval.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 7-4 Satwik-Chirag: The point goes the Koreans’ way but that rally should see the Indians gain confidence. Warming up well this one. And sure enough, SatChi take the next point with a lovely 1-2-3.
Aditya Chaturvedi: Prannoy has a seven-point lead in the second game and it seems we will indeed have a decider here. Lakshya is putting in the dives here and there but his intensity was surely a bit lower in this second game. Pehaps saving it for the third.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 6-2 Satwik-Chirag: The Indians are just a bit off the pace here. Reaction mostly to what the Koreans are doing.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 16-9 Lakshya Sen: A decider seems imminent in this one.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Choi-Kim 3-0 Satwik-Chirag: The Koreans off the block quickly.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 11-8 Lakshya Sen: Another lead for Prannoy at the interval, a 3-point advantage with some help from the net chord.
Men’s doubles round of 32, Satwik-Chirag vs Choi-Kim: The Koreans had a great 2022 and now are in the top 10 as a new pairing. Choi was in the top 10 in the past too. The Indians won their only past meeting on course to winning the title at French Open Super 750 last year.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24, 3-7 Lakshya Sen: Not a great start to the 2nd game by Lakshya, personified by a serve error.
Satwik-Chirag about to enter Court 2.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-24 Lakshya Sen: And game one to Lakshya! Good rally but Prannoy will be miffed with the soft backhand error that ended the rally and the opening game. What a back and forth that was!
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-23 Lakshya Sen: A smart drop return by Lakshya and it leads to an error by Prannoy. Another brilliant rally follows and it is now game point again for Sen.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 22-21 Lakshya Sen: A fine rally between the two again and LS wins the point to save a game point from his side. Another brutal rally follows with some great defending by Sen but he makes the error at the end.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 21-20 Lakshya Sen: A game point for HSP as Sen’s lift goes long.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 20-20 Lakshya Sen: And now Prannoy saves game point with a powerful smash of his own.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 19-20 Lakshya Sen: A fantastic rally! Brilliant from both men as they push each other to all corners of the court before Lakshya nails a smash to have game point.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 19-19 Lakshya Sen: And Prannoy has good reason to feel miffed about a line call this time Hands on his head as the shuttle is called out. But he wins the next two points and we are level again!
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 16-17 Lakshya Sen: As it seemed Lakshya was making his move, a couple of crosscourt errors creep in.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 14-16 Lakshya Sen: And Lakshya has injected pace into the proceedings, dominating the fast exchanges now.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 13-13 Lakshya Sen: After a lovely flat exchange, Prannoy is miffed with himself as he nets a simple forehand. We are back level.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy 11-9 Lakshya Sen: After HSP, now Lakshya unhappy with a line call and perhaps rightly so too. No challenges on Court 4 of course. Soon after Prannoy takes a handy lead into the interval.
Men’s singles round of 32, HS Prannoy vs Lakshya Sen: We are underway! To and fro in the opening exchanges but HSP catches up to make it 8-8.
Match update: HS Prannoy vs Lakshya Sen to follow this on court 4.
And not long to go for HS Prannoy vs Lakshya Sen, this is a good read on the men’s singles game:
Shuttle Zone: Decoding men’s singles – is counter-attacking badminton the name of the game?
With PV Sindhu the last remaining Indian hope in women’s singles this week in KL, this is worth revisiting:
Shuttle Zone: Beyond Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, decoding India’s women’s singles puzzle
As we wait for the next Indian match, here’s something for you to read ahead of the Hockey World Cup
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 13-21 An Se Young: A few bright moments here and there for Bansod but consistency is the name of the game and ASY is one of the best in the world for a reason.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 13-19 An Se Young: Inching closer to a comfortable win, is ASY.
Epic win for Vitidsarn:
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 11-16 An Se Young: Into double figures, Bansod
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 8-15 An Se Young: Slightly unfortunate call on the Indian there after a good rally, her down-the-line seemed to catch the line but given out. No reviews on this court though.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 7-11 An Se Young: Similar to the opening game again. The point just before the mid-game interval, ASY was defending pretty much the entirety of a rally and doing so brilliantly, before taking a step closer to the net and putting Bansod under pressure. She does that so well.
Looks like an absolute thriller here
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 6-7 An Se Young: After losing 14 out of 15 points to close game 1, Bansod has recovered decently again to start game 2 well. The errors are haunting her though, plays a good rally but mishits the closing shot sometimes.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-21 An Se Young: A close start to the match but all ASY after that. When she gets those crosscourt winners going, she is hard to stop. Bansod had no answers after the initial exchanges, where she did enjoy success with her drop shots.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-18 An Se Young: A superb run of 11 out of 12 points for ASY.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 9-16 An Se Young: ASY is starting to run away with this, unfortunately for the Indian.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod 8-11 An Se Young: The Indian had her nose in front a few occasions in the opening exchanges but ASY wins four in a row to take a handy lead into the mid-game interval.
Women’s singles round of 32, Malvika Bansod vs An Se Young: First up, India’s new WS No 2 in action and it is a huge test for Bansod against the rising star of badminton in An Se Young. Bansod has made a good start, it’s 6-6 in the opening exchanges.
Hello all and welcome to the live coverage of the 2023 badminton season. It’s day two at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 as we begin the season with a blockbuster event and there are some blockbuster matches lined up today for Indian shuttlers in Kuala Lumpur.
PV Sindhu returns to action after a long injury-enforced break and her first test is against friend and familiar foe Carolina Marin. And there is the now-traditional HS Prannoy vs Lakshya Sen battle. There is also a big Korean test awaiting Satwik-Chirag.
DAY 1 UPDATE: Gopichand-Treesa Jolly progress; K Srikanth, Saina Nehwal bow out
Screenshots in the blog courtesy BWF / Viacom 18 / Tournament Software