French Open Badminton 2024: Sindhu & Treesa-Gayatri Pair Enter Quarter-Finals; Srikanth Bows Out

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India's PV Sindhu fought back from a game down to reach the quarterfinals, but it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth in the French Open Badminton 2024 tournament singles competition at the Adidas Arena in Paris on Thursday (March 7).

Playing her first BWF tour event since returning from a knee injury, registered a come-from-behind victory over USA's Beiwen Zhang in the women's singles second round match that lasted 55 minutes on court 2.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, defeated the World No. 10 Zhang by a scoreline of 13-21, 21-10, 21-14 to enter the quarterfinal in her first appearance on the BWF World Tour this season.

The world No. 11 will next face Olympic champion and second seed Chen Yu Fei of China, making the contest on Friday (March 8) an acid test for the Indian, who is eyeing a third medal at the Paris Games.

Srikanth, on the other hand, took the lead in his men's singles second round match against China's Lu Guang Zu, but dropped the next two in a hard-fought contest to lose the match by a scoreline of 21-19, 12-21, 20-22 in a contest that lasted an hour and 18 minutes on court 3.

The former world number 1, who saw off Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen on Wednesday (March 6), suffered yet another round-of-16 loss, something which will bother him as he held a flawless 5-0 record against the Chinese shuttler ahead of the match.

In doubles competition, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand pair eased to straight games win over seventh seed pair Yuki Fukushima & Sayaka Hirota of Japan to book their quarter-final spot.

The Indian pair defeated the Japanese duo by a scoreline of 21-18, 21-13 in the women's doubles second round match that lasted 46 minutes on Court 2. They will next face a tougher test when they face top seeds Chen Qingchen & Jiyifan in the last eight.

Later in the day, Lakshya Sen will be involved in men's singles clash against Li Shi Feng, while the top doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will play their doubles second round match against Man Wei Chong & Tee Kai Wun of Malaysia.

Earlier on Wednesday (March 6) and Tuesday (March 5), HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajawat and doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa & Tanisha Crasto made first round exits following contrasting results.