All England Open: Lakshya Sen advances to quarters, Prannoy crashes out

Birmingham [UK], March 18 (ANI): India shuttler Lakshya Sen on Thursday progressed to the quarterfinals of the ongoing All England Open while HS Prannoy crashed out of the competition.
Lakshya Sen defeated France's Thomas Rouxel 21-18, 21- 17 in the second round while world number one Kento Momota defeated Prannoy 21-15, 21-14 in the second round.
While Lakshya's match got over inside 53 minutes, Momota made light work of Prannoy and he defeated him in the second round inside 48 minutes.
Earlier on Thursday, India mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa crashed out of the ongoing All England Open. The duo was defeated by Japan's Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo 21-19, 21-9 in the second round.
The match proved to be a one-sided affair as the Japanese duo triumphed over the Indian duo in just 35 minutes.
India shuttlers HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma, and Sai Praneeth also started their All England Open campaign on a high, winning their respective first-round games on Wednesday.
However, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal exited the event after retiring hurt in the first round match (21-8, 10-4) against Danish badminton player Mia Blichfeldt.
Ace India shuttler PV Sindhu had also cruised to the second round of the tournament with a win over Malaysia's Soniia Cheah. Sindhu overcame the first-round challenge as she won 21-11, 21-17 in 39 minutes. Also, the Indian men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankirerddy progressed to the second round of the showpiece event. (ANI)