PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth sail into Korea Open second round

PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth secured straight-game wins in the opening round to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament here on Wednesday. Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, trounced USA's Lauren Lam 21-15, 21-14, while Srikanth saw off Malaysia's Daren Liew 22-20, 21-11 at the Palma Stadium.

The third seeded Sindhu, who had claimed the Swiss Open title recently, will next meet Japan's Aya Ohori, while world championships silver medallist Srikanth, seeded fifth, will be up against Israel's Misha Zilberman. MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also progressed to the second round after getting a walkover from Korea's Ba Da Kim and Hee Young Park.

The Indian duo will face second seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan next. On Tuesday, world championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen and fast-rising Malvika Bansod had entered the second round.