Bangladesh International: Lakshya Sen, Ashmita Chaliha advance

Having bagged the gold medal at the South Asian Games in Nepal, India's rising badminton star Ashmita Chaliha continued her winning streak as she and the in-form Lakshya Sen both won their matches at the Bangladesh International Challenge in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The eighth-seeded Chaliha staved off a stiff challenge from compatriot Likhita Srivastava in the first game and then cruised through the second game to record a 23-21, 21-4 win at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium in 20 minutes. The Assam girl will next face Vaidehi Choudhari in another all-Indian clash for a place in the quarter-finals.

In his quest for his fifth title of the season, men's singles top seed Lakshya Sen booked his place in the pre-quarterfinals with an effortless 21-13, 21-6 win against Malaysia's Md Tah M Ziyad. He will face another Malaysian, Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin for a quarter-final berth.

The 18-year-old Uttarakhand ace, a product of Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, is currently in a rich vein of form having triumphed at the Belgian International, the Dutch Open, the SaarLorLux Open, and the Scottish Open.

Lakshya's elder brother, Chirag Sen, seeded 13th at this International Challenge event, also progressed. He needed 33 minutes to see off Malaysia's Lim Chi Wing 21-12, 21-18.

12th seed Siddharth Pratap Singh also made it to the third round, courtesy of a 21-16, 21-18 win against Malaysia's Muhammad Izzuddin Shamsul Muzli. 11th seed Kiran George and 14th seed Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, however, could not achieve a win.

George squandered a good start to go down 21-12, 18-21, 18-21 to Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong while Kumar narrowly lost to Lim Chong King 23-25, 21-15, 13-21 in a marathon that lasted 1 hour 10 minutes.

Eighth seed Mithun Manjunath was another casualty on the second day of this tournament. The Indian youngster gave his all only to bow out 15-21, 21-12, 16-21 to Indonesia's Yonathan Ramlie.

Among the girls, rising stars Mugdha Agrey, Smit Toshniwal, Samiya Imad Farooqui, and Purva Barve won their matches while Aakarshi Kashyap exited.