Malaysia Masters: Saina cruises to 2nd round; Sai Praneeth, Srikanth bow out

Star shuttler Saina Nehwal sailed into the second round with a convincing win over Belgium's Lianne Tan but World championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

The London Olymics bronze medallist Saina beat Tan 21-15 21-17 in just 36 minutes of action. This was the first time the two were facing each other.

Saina, who claimed the Indonesia Masters last year has struggled since making a series of early exits in the rest of the year.

Earlier, Praneeth made a first round exit after going down tamely to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 11-21 15-21.

Srikanth lost his second seed encounter to Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen 17-21 5-21 in only 30 minutes.