India, Sept. 2 -- Lakshya Sen was knocked out of the China Masters after a listless performance against Canada's Victor Lai but Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the second round here on Wednesday.

Lakshya, a 2021 world championships bronze-medallist, played an error-riddled game to go down 14-21 7-21 in 38 minutes to world No. 9 Lai, who won his second bronze medal at the World Championships last month.

It was Lakshya's third defeat to the Canadian with his only win being at the All England Championships in March this year.

Srikanth, a 2021 world championships silver-medallist, however, progressed after beating Chinese Taipei's Chi Yu Jen 21-16 21-15 in another men's singles opener.

India's mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha...