Republic of Korea’s An Se-Young, Paris 2024 gold medalist, eased into the women’s singles Malaysia Open 2025 quarter-finals on Thursday.
The women’s top seed needed just 38 minutes to topple Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh in the Round of 16 21-15, 21-15 in the Round of 16 clash. She will take on USA’s Beiwen Zhang, who defeated Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 21-14, 21-18, in the next round on Friday.
The top-ranked Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty eased into the quarter-finals of the BWF Super 1000 event.
The seventh seeds brushed aside local pair Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub-Tan Wee Kiong 21-15, 21-15 at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur in convincing fashion.
At the beginning of the season, the pair said: “It’s (the start of 2025) going to be about participating in as many tournaments as possible,” Satwiksairaj said on the sidelines of the launch event for the high-performance badminton centre Bhubaneswar on December 13.
“But definitely it’s not going to be fine just to participate because we want the podium finishes. We want to be back on the top of the world again.”
World No.26 HS Prannoy succumbed to a three-game thriller 21-8, 15-21, 23-21 against Shi Feng Li of the People’s Republic of China.
India’s Malvika Bansod, doubles pairs’ of Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath, and Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand also exited the tournament.