Japan Open: Lakshya Sen, Prannoy through to quarterfinals

Tokyo (Japan): India's Lakshya Sen and H S Prannoy entered the men's singles quarterfinals of the Japan Open here on Thursday.

Former World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya beat Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in straight games in a second-round clash.

The 21-year-old, currently ranked 13th, defeated Tsuneyama 21-14, 21-16 in a 50-minute encounter.

Keralite Prannoy got the better of compatriot Kidambi Srikanth 19-21, 21-9, 21-9 in the BWF World Tour Super 750 event

In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the Korea Open on Sunday, also advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Denmark's pair of Jepp Bay and Lasse Molhedge 21-17, 21-11 in straight games.

However, India suffered a setback as the top women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand lost to world No.7 pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida from Japan, 21-23, 19-21 in just under an hour.

Playing on Court 1 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Lakshya took an early lead in the first game and opened up a 5-1 lead. Though his Japanese opponent reduced the margin to 7-5, Sen won the next five points in a row to extend it to 12-5.

Tsuneyama again fought back to cut down the lead to 16-14, the Indian shuttler won five consecutive points to win the game.

The second game was closer as the players went neck-and-neck till 6-6 before Lakshya surged ahead to 10-7. Tsuneyama reduced the margin to 12-11 as they fought hard for each point till 16-16 before Lakshya won the next five points to win the game and match in 50 minutes.