Kuala Lumpur, Jan 8: Returning from a prolonged injury lay-off, PV Sindhu began the new season on a winning note along with the formidable men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy as they entered the second round of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.The 30-year-old former world champion, who had opted to withdraw from all BWF World Tour events in October last year to recover from a foot injury, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun 21-14, 22-20 in a 51-minutes showdown of the women’s singles opening round.
The 18th-ranked Sindhu showed no signs of discomfort as she overcame the lower-ranked Sung for the second time to take her head-to-head to 2-0 and set up a round-of-16 clash with world No.9 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan.
Miyazaki, a 2022 world junior champion, advanced after her 10th-ranked opponent, Sim Yu Jin of South Korea, retired hurt when the Japanese was leading 21-19, 1-2. Sindhu has a 1-1 record against Miyazaki, whom she beat in the 2025 China Masters during their last meeting.
Later, Satwik and Chirag, the former World No.1 pair, saw off Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po-Hsuan and Lee Jhe-Hue 21-13 21-15 in 35 minutes to also enter the pre-quarterfinals. The Asian Games champions, who had reached the semifinals of the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in December, will face Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.