Injury scare for Lakshya ahead of Asian Games

Lakshya withdraws from Hong Kong Open; Tanisha-Ashwini in last 16

Indian women doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament in Kowloon, Hong Kong, on Wednesday.

Tanisha and Ashwini beat Chinese Taipei's Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun 21-19, 21-19 to set up a clash with top seeded Japanese duo of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara.

Asian Games bound Lakshya Sen, however, withdrew from the tournament due to slight strain in his back.

"He has almost recovered but with the Asian Games round the corner, we didn't want to risk playing today without being 100 per cent. He will be fine in a few days," coach Anup Sridhar told PTI.

Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a 13-21, 14-21, loss to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama, while Aakarshi Kashyap went down 18-21, 10-21 to German Yvonne Li.

Malvika Bansod defeated China's Zhang Yi Man 21-14, 21-12 in another women's singles match.

Men's doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost to Korea's Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol 14-21, 19-21.

In the mixed doubles, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also went down 16-21, 21-16, 18-21 to Malaysia's Chen tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, while Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy lost 19-21, 10-21 against Singapore's Hee Yong Kai terry and Tan Wei Han Jessica.