Saina ‘coaches’ Kashyap to next round of Malaysia Masters

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 16 (IANS) After sailing into the season-opening Malaysia Masters women's singles pre-quarters, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal on Wednesday turned coach for her shuttler husband Parupalli Kashyap, who also advanced to the next round along with Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles categories.

Also advancing to the next round of the World Tour Super 500 tournament is the women's doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N.Sikki Reddy.

Sikki, however, failed to proceed in the mixed doubles category with her partner Pranaav Jerry Chopra, as the Indian duo went down 19-21, 17-21 to The Netherlands' pair of Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek.

In the women's singles first round encounter that lasted one hour and five minutes, Saina, the No.7 seed came back from a game down to eventually beat unseeded Deng Joy Xuan of Hong Kong 14-21, 21-18, 21-18.

Saina, the only Indian in women's singles event, will next play another unseeded Hong Kong shuttler Pui Yin Yip.

The 2018 Asian Games gold medallist then returned to coach her husband Kashyap, who also bounced back from a game down to eventually tame Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 19-21, 21-19, 21-10.

After the match, Kashyap took to Twitter where he shared a picture of both and wrote: "Through to the second round at the #MalaysiaMastersSuper500 after a three set win against #rasmusgemke. Looking forward to a good match tomorrow against @sinisukanthony. Thank you coach @NSaina."

Kashyap will next face sixth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.

In another men's singles match, Srikanth, the No.7 seed comfortably beat Angus Ka Long NG of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-11 in mere 30 minutes.

In the next round, Srikanth will be up against Hong Kong's Vincent Wing Ki Wong.

Meanwhile, the women's doubles pair of Sikki and Ashwini overcame a stiff resistance from Hong Kong's Tsz Yau NG and Sin Ying Yuen to enter the next round with a 21-16, 22-20 win.