Paris: World Championships sliver medalist PV Sindhu continued her golden run as she raced to the quarter-final of the USD $325,000 French Open. But London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal’s time at the event came to an abrupt end after she suffered a straight loss against Japanese Akane Yamaguchi at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin stadium in Paris on Thursday.
In the men’s singles category Kidambi Srikanth continued his sweet run over Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent defeating him 21-19, 21-17 in just 37 minutes to progress to the quarterfinals. The duo also had earlier met in the Semi-finals of the recently concluded Denmark Open, with Srikanth coming out victorious. B. Sai Praneeth however exited the tournament after losing 21-13, 21-17 to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the second round of the French Open.
Rio Olympics silver medalists Sindhu faced no difficulty in knocking out Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi 21-14, 21-13 in a game that just lasted 29 minutes. The world number two completely dominated the proceedings as Takahashi stood no chance. Courtesy, the win the 22-year-old also set up a revenge match against World number 10 Chen Yufei, who had crashed her out in the opening round of the Denmark Open.
Former World Champion Saina Nehwal however faced an early exit from the tournament after losing 9-21, 21-23 to Japanese World No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi for the consecutive time in successive tournaments, following her loss against the Japanese in the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open.
Meanwhile in the doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 16-21, 14-21 to top seeded pair of Japanese Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi to bow out of the tournament. While in the men’s doubles, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty disposed off Danish sixth seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 22-20, 12-21, 21-19 in a match that lasted just over an hour.
Later, HS Prannoy also progressed to the quarter-finals of the French Open after defeating Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark 21-11, 21-12 in straight sets in a match that lasted just half an hour.