All England: Lakshya, Sindhu in quarters; Prannoy crashes out

Lakshya Sen became the youngest Indian male shuttler to reach the All England Badminton Championships quarter-finals, but it was curtains for compatriot H S Prannoy, who went down in straight games in the men's singles second round, in Birmingham, on Thursday.

Joining Lakshya in the last eight of the Super 1000 tournament was Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu. The reigning World champion scored a 21-8, 21-8 victory over Denmark's Line Christophersen in a second round match.

Sindhu will take on Japan's third seed Akane Yamaguchi next.

Lakshya, from Almora in the state of Uttarakhand, who won five titles in 2019, saw off France's Thomas Rouxel 21-18, 21-16.

The 19-year-old, who won the Asian Junior Championships title, the World Junior championships bronze and Youth Olympics Games silver in 2018, will next face either Ireland's Nhat Nguyen or the Netherland's Mark Caljouw.

Prannoy, a former top 10 player, however, couldn't find his way past World No. 1 Kento Momota, the Japanese playing his first event since a horrific accident that saw him undergo eye surgery last year.

The Indian lost 15-21, 14-21 in 48 minutes and bowed out of the competition.

Also, ousted from the tournament was the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, who lost 19-21, 9-21 to the Japanese duo of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo in the opening round.

On Wednesday night, Prannoy, along with Lakshya, Olympic hopeful B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma entered the second round, but former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal was forced to concede her opening women's singles match after sustaining an injury.

Saina, who finished second best at the All-England in 2015, looked in discomfort with her right thigh and decided to retire after trailing 8-21, 4-10 in her opening round match against seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark.

In the men's singles, World No. 15 Praneeth beat France's Toma Junior Popov 21-18, 22-20, while Prannoy brushed aside Malaysia's Daren Liew 21-10, 21-10.

Sameer outlasted Brazil's Ygor Coelho 21-11, 21-19, while Lakshya stunned Thailand's World No. 18 Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-18, 21-12.

In the mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy went down 15-21, 17-21 to Denmark's Rasmus Espersen and Christine Busch in the opening round.