Kuala Lumpur: Indian shuttlers Malvika Bansod and Ashmita Chaliha progressed to the women’s singles main draw with contrasting wins in the qualification round of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament here on Tuesday.
While world number 42 Malvika got the better of Chinese Taiei’s Lin Hsiang Ti 21-12 21-19, world number 53 Ashmita overcame Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang 10-21 21-19 21-17 in 45 minutes at the Axiata Arena here.
Malvika will face second seed Wang Zhi Yi, while Ashmita will meet fourth seeded Chinese Han Yue in the main draw.
In men’s singles, World junior championships silver medallist S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, who reached the second round of qualification after the withdrawal of fellow Indian Priyanshu Rajawat, lost 10-21 14-21 to Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen.
National champion Mithun Manjunath too failed to grab the opportunity, going down 13-21 19-21 to Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee in another qualifying match.
Top stars, including PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, will start their campaign on Wednesday.
