BWF World Championships: Lakshya Sen Enters Pre-Quarterfinals, Kidambi Srikanth Knocked Out

Last edition's runner-up Kidambi Srikanth on Wednesday crashed out of the World Championships after a straight game defeat to world number 32 Zhao Jun Peng. Kidambi went down against his Chinese counterpart 18-21, 17-21 in a match lasting only 34 minutes. Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, sailed into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals with a straight games win over Spain's Luis Penalver.

Srikanth was out of sorts in the opening game as it took only 12 minutes for Zhao to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Indian, already on the back foot, tried to up the ante in the second game and led 16-14 but too many unforced errors helped Zhao secure the victory.

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