World Championships: Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy advance to pre-quarters, Kidambi Srikanth crash out

Young Indian badminton sensation Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy sailed into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships in Tokyo on Wednesday. However, last edition's silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth faced a defeat in the round-of-32 tie, losing to China's Zhao Jun Peng in straight games.

Sen secured a straight game win over Spain's Luis Penalver, while Prannoy stunned second seed Kento Momota in straight games to record a sensational win.

Commonwealth Games champion Sen won his second round match 21-17 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality. After trailing 3-4, the ninth seeded Sen grabbed a six-point lead to be 13-7. The Indian continued to stay ahead before comfortably wrapping up the first game.

Sen, a world championship bronze medallist, then maintained his stranglehold over the Spanish shuttler and won the second game by a bigger margin.

In the second game, the first six points were shared between the two players, but the 21-year-old Indian pulled ahead riding on his superior play.

Enjoying a massive nine-point lead at one stage of the second game, it was only a matter of time before Sen completed the job.

Srikanth goes down in straight games

Srikanth, meanwhile, had a disappointing start to the match, lacking fight in the first game to go down 9-21 before turning up in the second. However, it wasn't enough from the Indian shuttler as he conceded a 17-21 loss to bow out of the championships.

A look at the doubles

Earlier, the Indian men's doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila moved to the pre-quarterfinals but Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy made a second round exit from the prestigious tournament.

The unseeded Arjun and Kapila upstaged eighth seeds and last edition's bronze medallists Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-17 21-16 in the their second round match.

They will face Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean of Singapore next.

Ponnappa and Sikki, on the other hand, were handed a 21-15 21-10 by top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in 42 minutes.

The other women's doubles pairing of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh's also crashed out of the tournament, going down to third seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of Korea 15-21 7-21.

The eighth seeded men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy thrashed Guatemala's Solis Jonathan and Anibal Marroquin 21-8 21-10 to storm into Round of 16, where the duo will be up against Denmark's Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede.

Prannoy stuns Momota

Unseeded Prannoy rose above expectations to shut the door on crowd favourite and two-time former world champion Momota 21-17 21-16 in a second round tie.

Incidentally, it was Prannoy's first win over Momota in eight matches. In their previous clashes, the Indian won only one game against his higher-rated Japanese rival.

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