It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers as Lakshya Sen advanced to the pre-quarters while last edition's runner-up Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the BWF World Championships on Wednesday (August 24).
Srikanth went down to world no.32 Zhao Jun Peng 18-21, 17-21 which only lasted for 34 minutes. For the Chinese counterpart, it took mere 12 minutes to claim a 1-0 lead to leave the 29-year-old in all sorts of bother. However, the Indian tried to make a comeback in the second game with a 16-14 lead but failed to persist and committed sundry of unforced errors thus Zhao ended up securing the victory.
Meanwhile, in another match reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen sauntered to the men's singles pre-quarterfinals with a straight game win over Spain's Luis Penalver.
The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his second round contest 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.
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 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 loss 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.
