Malaysia Masters / Indonesia Masters / Thailand Masters Jan 2020

[Sin Hombre]

After a mostly dismal 2019, badminton season has started again in Malaysia this week. Saina in particular needs to make deep runs to secure Olympic qualification.

Expected results so far outside of a shocking first round loss for Satwik/Chirag.

[sameerph]

Also pretty good first round wins over higher ranked players by both Prannoy and Sameer Verma abd loss to a lower ranked player for Praneeth,

These are full results -

At $400M PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2020, Kuala Lumpur (BWF World Tour Super 500)

[Q1] Subhankar Dey (IND,45) l. (3) Daren Liew (MAS,30) 15-21 15-21
[Q1] Lakshya Sen (IND,32) l. (4) Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus (DEN,31) 21-11 18-21 14-21

[Q1] Pooja Dandu (IND)/ Sanjana Santosh (IND) l. Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti (INA)/ Ribka Sugiarto (INA) 15-21 10-21

[R1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,23) l. (1) Kento Momota (JPN,1) 17-21 16-21
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,26) d. Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,10) 21-9 21-17
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,11) l. Rasmus Gemke (DEN,18) 11-21 15-21
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,33) d. Kantaphon Wangcharoen (THA,13) 21-16 21-15
[R1] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,12) l. (2) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,2) 17-21 5-21

[R1] (8) Saina Nehwal (IND,11) d. (Q) Lianne Tan (BEL,45) 21-15 21-17
[R1] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) d. Evgeniya Kosetskaya (RUS,27) 21-15 21-13

[R1] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l Yew Sin Ong (MAS)/ Ee Yi Teo (MAS) 15-21 21-18 15-21

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l. (1) Si Wei Zheng (CHN)/ Ya Qiong Huang (CHN) 10-21 10-21

[sameerph]

Second round match-ups-

At $400M PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2020, Kuala Lumpur (BWF World Tour Super 500)

[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,26) vs. (1) Kento Momota (JPN,1)
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,33) vs. Lee Zii Jia (MAS,14)

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs. (8) An Se Young (KOR,9)
[R2] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) vs. Aya Ohori (JPN,19)

[prasen9]

Maybe Young is seeded 7th?

[sameerph]

Maybe Young is seeded 7th?

No, in fact Saina is not seeded. I changed the typo in above post. Their match has just started now. In their last match Young had won in straight games . Lets see how Saina fares now.

[sameerph]

Saina beats the young Korean sensation to avenge her last defeat and Sindhu wins her match easily. Both our men lost though. Sameer Verma gave away comfortable leads in both sets.

At $400M PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2020, Kuala Lumpur (BWF World Tour Super 500)

[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,26) l. (1) Kento Momota (JPN,1) 14-16 16-21
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,33) l. Lee Zii Jia (MAS,14) 19-21 20-22

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) d. (8) An Se Young (KOR,9) 25-23 21-12
[R2] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) d. Aya Ohori (JPN,19) 21-10 21-15

Very tough matches for both in the QF.

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs. Carolina Marin (ESP,10)

[QF] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) vs. (1) Tai Tzu Ying (TPE,1)

In their current form, a win in either of the matches will be a big upset.

[sameerph]

Both Saina and Sindhu lost in straight games. Saina was completely dominated by Marin who seems to have moved to the top gear quickly after being back from injury.

At $400M PERODUA Malaysia Masters 2020, Kuala Lumpur (BWF World Tour Super 500)

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) l. Carolina Marin (ESP,10) 8-21 7-21

[QF] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) l. (1) Tai Tzu Ying (TPE,1) 16-21 16-21

[Sin Hombre]

Disastrous.

2020 seems that it will be more of the same.

[Sin Hombre]

Indonesia masters somehow managed a new low.

7 or 8 first round loss, only Sindhu won her R1 and she promptly lost in R2.

Heads must roll.

[rajitghosh]

Badminton should not be considered as a medal prospect for Tokyo.

Right now Gopi is busy blaming Prakash Padukone for getting Saina to join his academy a few years ago. This Gopi-Prakash fight is becoming a bit like the Lee-Hesh fight- 2 legends taking unnecessary digs at each other when together they can do many great things.

Saina anyway is probably past her prime but the fall of Sindhu, Srikanth, Prannoy, Sameer Verma etc. is surprising. Even Sai Praneeth seems to be regressing after a decent last year.

[sameerph]

Yes, our badminton is in doldrums right now. There seems to be no desire on part of players and coaches to do anything better. Suddenly, everyone is performing at a low ebb together which is surprising indeed.

Realistically from the olympics points of view, even at same time of last year, one would predicted only 1 medal from womens singles. Mens singles looked like a medal hope only for a few months in 2017 when Srikanth was on a winning spree and made it to the world #1.

Now it looks like that 1 medal possibility too is receding fast. Just in few months since Sindhu became a world champion, the scenario has quickly changed in womens singles. There is stiff competition now from Chinese world no.1 Chen Yu Fei,Tai , Marin and the 2 Japanese. Now, Sindhu only looks like a outside hope.

[Sin Hombre]

Srikanth again loses in R1 to a low ranked player. I think we can call a close to his Tokyo qualification hopes.

[sameerph]

Not only Srikanth but the remaining Indian players Sameer Verma, Prannoy and Saina all got knocked out in first round. It is getting from bad to worse. All government support to these players should really stop. What is the use when they are getting in first round one after another.

[jaydeep]

What a mess!

At $270K Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters 2020, Bangkok (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,27) l Daren Liew (MAS,41) 17-21 22-20 19-21
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,29) l (7) Zii Jia Lee (MAS,13) 16-21 15-21
[R1] (5) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,14) l Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA,20) 21-12 14-21 11-21

[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,18) l Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt (DEN,29) 13-21 21-17 15-21

[R1] Venkat Gaurav Prasad (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) l Kyohei Yamashita (JPN)/ Naru Shinoya (JPN) 10-21 10-21