Seventh seed Lakshya defeated local sensation and World No. 26 Koki Watanabe 21-12, 21-16 in 39 minutes in a dominating straight-game win to reach the second round of the Japan Masters Super 500 badminton tournament.

The Indian, ranked World No. 15, will take on Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason The, who defeated Victor Lai of Canada to advance to the next round, for a place in the quarterfinals.

Prannoy, on the other hand, came from a game behind to beat higher-ranked Malaysian Jun Hao Leong 16-21, 21-13, 23-21 in an hour and eight minutes.

Tharun Mannepalli, on the other hand, succumbed to a 9-21, 19-21 defeat in 44 minutes to World No. 36 Hyeok Jin Jeon from South Korea.

Kiran George and Ayush Shetty too suffered straight-game defeats. While Malaysia’s Kok Jing Hong beat Kiran 22-20, 21-10, fourth-seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka took down Shetty 21-16, 21-11.

In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde saved four match points before eventually losing 12-21, 21-19, 20-22 to Americans Presley Smith and Jennie Gai.

Also read: Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag enter Hong Kong Open finals