After defeating Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in the second round on Thursday, veteran Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the Malaysia Masters quarterfinals.

After a protracted slump in form, Srikanth, who is presently ranked 65th in the world, fought for 59 minutes to defeat the world No. 33 23-21, 21-17.

He will face Toma Junior Popov of France in the quarterfinals. Popov progressed after beating Ayush Shetty of India 21-13, 21-17.

Despite their best efforts, HS Prannoy lost against Yushi Tanaka 9-21, 18-21 in the second round. Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila, an Indian team, defeated Lea Palermo and Julien Maio of France in a grueling 21-17, 18-21, 21-15 mixed doubles match to go to the quarterfinals. The Chinese duo of Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin will be their next opponent.

After losing against Toma’s brother and doubles partner, Christo Popov, 14-21, 16-21, Sathish Karunakaran withdrew from the event.

Earlier, Prannoy fought his way to victory in an 82-minute match against Japan’s fifth seed Kenta Nishimoto, winning 19-21, 21-17, 21-16. Not to be outdone, Srikanth advanced to the second round by shocking China’s sixth seed Lu Guang Zu with a stoic victory of 23-21, 13-21, 21-11.

After defeating Chinese Taipei shuttlers Kuo Kuan-lin and Huang Yu Kai in the preliminaries, Srikanth advanced to the men’s singles main draw.

However, in the first round of the women’s singles competition, PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic winner, lost to Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam 11-21, 21-14, 15-21.

To go to the second round, Kapila and Crasto defeated Indah Cahya Sari Jamil and Adnan Maulana of Indonesia 21-18, 15-21, 21-14.