Kuala Lumpur: Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the second round of the Malaysian Open World Tour Super 750 tournament here on Wednesday.
Olympic and world championship silver medallist Sindhu staved off a spirited challenge from world No. 20 Aya Ohori 22-20, 21-12 to record her sixth win over the Japanese. India Open finalist Srikanth beat Indonesia's Ihsan Maulana Mustofa 21-18, 21-16 in 38 minutes.
Fifth seed Sindhu will now look to avenge her All England loss against Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Srikanth will meet Thailand's Khosit Phetpradab on Thursday.
H S Prannoy, who had reached the quarterfinals last week at New Delhi in the India Open, however, bowed out after losing 12-21, 21-16, 21-14 to Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand following a hard-fought battle.
With Sameer Verma too crashing out in the opening round, Srikanth is the only Indian in the fray in men's singles.
Men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who had entered the semifinals in India Open, also failed to cross the opening hurdle, going down 16-21, 6-21 to seventh seeds Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong of China.
World No. 6 Sindhu fell back in the opening game after an initial 5-2 lead as Ohori jumped to a n12-7 advantage.
The Indian then clawed back, grabbing a slender 13-12 lead, but the Japanese once again moved ahead to hold a game point.
Sindhu then reeled off three points to secure the opening game.
In the second game, Sindhu changed her strategy and cut down on her errors to zoom to a 12-5 lead and continued to surge ahead even as Ohori crumbled.
