Badminton Asia Championships: Sindhu, Kiran advance; Lakshya, Prannoy exit

PV Sindhu, Kiran George and the men’s doubles team of Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruban Kumar moved into the second round of the Badminton Asia Championships, but Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy made another first-round exits. Sindhu drubbed Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo of Indonesia 21-15, 21-19 in Ningbo, China, on Wednesday and will face Akane Yamaguchi of Japan next.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Facing lower-ranked Dmitriy Panarin of Kazakhstan, George raced to a 21-16, 21-8 victory. He will face Olympic silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday. India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Lakshya, ranked No. 16, suffered his third straight loss to world No. 14 Lee Chia Hao — 18-21, 10-21. Lakshya had lost in a similar fashion at the Swiss Open last month. Prannoy looked like returning to form when he won the second game but failed to put up a fight in the third and lost 16-21, 21-12, 11-21 to Guang Zu Lu of China. Hariharan-Ruban eased past little-known Sri Lankan pair of Maduka Dulanjana and Lahiru Weerasinghe 21-3, 21-12 to set up a second-round clash with the formidable Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh. India's women's doubles team of Priya Konjegbam and Shruti Mishra lost to Shuo Yun Sung and Chien Hui You of Chinese Taipei 11-21, 13-21. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand pulled out at the last minute.