French Open: Srikanth, PV Sindhu advances to semifinals

Paris, October 28: Star Indian shuttlers including Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy stormed into the semifinals of the French Open Superseries Premier Badminton tournament on Friday being held in Paris after winning their opponents in their respective categories.

 

In the women’s singles, Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu defeated Chen Yufei of China in straight games to storm into the women’s singles semi-final by 21-14, 21-14. With this win, Sindhu avenged her opening round loss to the Chinese at the Denmark Open, last week.

Sindhu, who had defeated Yufei at the World Championships, now lead the Chinese 3-2 in the overall head-to-head record. Sindhu will next play the winner of another quarter-final between third seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi.

In the men’s singles, HS Prannoy upsets South Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin by 21-16, 21-16 in a match that lasted for 47 minutes to enter in semifinals. On the other side, Kidambi Srikanth defeated fourth-seeded Chinese Shi Yuqi by 8-21, 21-19, 21-9 in a hard-fought match that lasted for more than an hour. Now Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy are set to compete in all-Indian men's singles semi-final.

Unfortunately, in the men’s doubles, Danish second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen defeated Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty 21-5, 17-21, 21-17 in less than an hour. Earlier, Glasgow World Championship bronze medalist Saina Nehwal bowed out of the tournament after losing to Japanese World No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi by 9-21, 21-23 in a 39-minute clash in a second round.