Srikanth, Saina through to 2nd round in Barcelona

Kidambi Srikanth on Wednesday beat compatriot Shubhankar Dey 23-21, 21-18 to go through to the second round of the Barcelona Spain Masters Super 300. It is the first win in the last four tournaments for the former world number one.

Srikanth will now face yet another compatriot in Ajay Jayaram as he races against time to secure qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by improving his world ranking.

Earlier, Saina Nehwal, who like Srikanth is looking to improve her ranking to qualify for the Olympics advanced to the women's singles second round in Barcelona while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki N Reddy also recorded victories in their mixed doubles first round match.

Saina beat Germany's Yvonne Li 21-16, 21-14 while Pranaav and Reddy prevailed over Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje 10-21, 21-16, 21-17.

But HS Prannoy suffered a defeat at the hands of Malaysian Daren Liew 18-21, 15-21 to bow out of the meet.