Indian shuttlers advance in Malaysia

HYDERABAD: Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap, Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram registered victories even as the doubles teams bit dust in the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in Kuching on Thursday. The only Indian in women's singles, Sindhu breezed past Hyo Min Kim of Korea 21-14, 21-12 to reach the quarterfinals.However, Kashyap struggled past Christie Jonatan of Indonesia 13-21, 22-20, 21-12.Kashyap, who is seeded third here, was off colour on Thursday. The Commonwealth Games men's singles champion will now face Derek Wong Zi Liang of Indonesia in the pre-quarters.Earlier, Ajay Jayaram produced a minor upset by knocking out ninth seed Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia 23-21, 17-21, 24-22 in the first round match which was postponed to Thursday.Jayaram came back a few hours later to shut out Mahbub Thomi Azizan of Indonesia 21-9, 21-15. Interestingly, Jayaram will face his compatriot Aditya Prakash in the third round on Friday.