Ashmita Chaliha’s Exit Ends India’s Campaign at Malaysia Masters

Kuala Lumpur: India’s run at the Malaysia Masters came to an end after shuttler Ashmita Chaliha suffered a quarterfinal defeat against Denmark’s Line Kjaersfeldt in the women’s singles event on Friday.

World No. 71 Ashmita made a bright start and claimed the opening game, but the experienced Dane fought back strongly to register a 21-23, 21-18, 21-11 win in a contest that lasted just over an hour.

Ashmita looked in control early on, taking an 11-6 lead in the first game. Although Kjaersfeldt staged a comeback to level the scores at 17-17, the Indian youngster kept her composure and sealed the game 23-21 on her third game point.

The second game also began positively for Ashmita as she surged ahead 10-5. However, Kjaersfeldt gradually turned the momentum around, narrowing the gap before drawing level at 13-13 after the interval. The Dane then produced a crucial four-point burst to move ahead 18-15 and eventually closed out the game 21-18 to force a decider.

In the final game, both players were level at 4-4 before Kjaersfeldt completely dominated proceedings, racing to a 13-6 advantage. Ashmita failed to recover from there as the Danish shuttler comfortably wrapped up the decider 21-11, ending India’s challenge in Kuala Lumpur.

Earlier, the remaining Indian players had already bowed out of the tournament. Malvika Bansod exited in the second round after losing to Kjaersfeldt, while Chen Yufei defeated Devika Sihag 21-16, 21-13 in women’s singles.

India’s men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan also crashed out after a straight-game loss to China’s Hu Keyuan and Lin Xiangyi.

In mixed doubles, Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Radhika Sharma were beaten by the American pair of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai.

India’s men’s singles campaign had ended earlier in the opening round following defeats for Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy.

With inputs from IANS