Canada Open: Lakshya Sen, PV Sindhu march on

Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Canada Open with convincing victories in the BWF World Tour Super 500 event being held in Calgary on Wednesday night.

In the men's singles event, Lakshya Sen delivered an impressive performance, overcoming second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-18, 21-15. Lakshya is India's highest representative in the men's singles here, given HS Prannoy's withdrawal.

Sindhu, seeded fourth in the women's singles, comfortably secured her spot in the next round by defeating Canada's Talia NG in straight games with a scoreline of 21-16, 21-9 on Wednesday night.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, will face off against Japan's Natsuki Nidaira, while Sen will be pitted against Ygor Coelho from Brazil.

Men's doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala entered the second round with a straight-game win over Chen Zhi Ray and Lu Chen of Chinese Taipei in the round of 32. The young Indian pair is likely to take on second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

However, B Sai Praneeth's stay in the tournament ended as he suffered 12-21, 17-21 defeat against Coelho.

Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also faced an early exit in the women's singles, losing 12-21, 3-21 against Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the first round.