Asian Badminton Championships: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth Win; Lakshya Sen Out

On a day star shutter Lakshya Sen made a first-round exit, double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and veteran Kidambi Srikanth began with easy wins to advance into the pre-quarterfinals of the Asia Badminton Championship, in Dubai on Wednesday. Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also kept the Indian flag high by making the last-16. Fresh from finishing runner-up at the Madrid Spain Masters, the former world champion, Sindhu defeated wen Chi Hsu 21-15, 22-20 in a 46-minute affair in the women's singles.

Trailing 11-14 in the first game, the world No 11 Indian, who is on a comeback trail after a long injury lay-off, reeled off nine points in a row to take a lead.

In the second game, the Taipei shuttler gave some fight but Sindhu led 11-7 at the break before sealing the issue.

Sindhu will face World No 9 Han Yue of China in the pre-quarters.

Former World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth took 25 minutes to see off his first-round opponent Adnan Ebrahim 21-13 21-8. He will face world No 5 Kodai Naraoka in the men's singles last-16.

Treesa-Gayatri secure comeback win Treesa and Gayatri duo roared back from behind to defeat Indonesia's Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto 17-21, 21-17, 21-18 in a battle lasting more than an hour.

After losing the first game tamely, the Indian duo put up a dominant display in the second and began with a 5-0 lead. They maintained their lead through out to force a decider.

The third game turned out to be an intense battle with Treesa and Gayatri trailing 15-16 against the Indonesian pair.

They were then locked at 18-all when an aggressive Treesa came up with a powerful cross-court smash before the Indian duo sealed the issue in