Sen, George and Rajawat enter pre-quarters of Asian Juniors

The sixth-seeded Lakshya Sen, 16th seed Kiran George and unseeded Priyanshu Rajawat sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships on the second day of the individual events in Jakarta.

Lakshya, who first beat Korean Hyeong Jung Kim 21-13 21-11 last night, accounted for Japanese Riku Hatano 21-6 18-21 21-15 while Kiran was made to work hard by Korean Ji Choi before winning 21-16 21-23 21-12.

Priyanshu Rajawat, too, faced some anxious moments before overcoming Japanese Ryota Ichii 21-18 13-21 23-21 in men singles to keep the Indian flag flying at the Jakarta arena.

Among women, the only seeded Indian Akarshi Kashyap lost her opening singles, after the first-round bye, to Thai opponent, Benyappa Aimsaard 21-18 21-18.

Dipti Kutty followed suit when she lost to Yu Ying Hsieh of Taipei 20-22 19-20.

However, Kavipriya Selvam, who moved into the pre-quarters with a win over Ciou-Tong Tung of Taipei in the morning, failed to progress when lost to fourth-seed Chinese Yaxin Wei 21-19 21-8 after putting up some fight in the first game.

The men's doubles squad of Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh sailed into the round of 32 when they beat the Hong Kong pair of Shing Hei Ko and Pak Nagi Mak 21-17 22-24 21-16.

The other Indians in fray bowed out without a fight.

Results: