French Open Badminton 2024: Sindhu, Srikanth Enter Second Round, Prannoy Crashes Out

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It was mixed results for India at the French Open Badmiton 2024 tournament on Wednesday (March 6) as Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu registered a hard-fought wins to reach the second round, but seventh seed HS Prannoy suffered an early exit in the singles competition.

Former world number one Srikanth, who is looking to qualify for the Paris Olympics, defeated Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-chen in the men's singles opener by a scoreline of 21-15, 20-22, 21-8 in an hour and six minutes in court 1 at the Adidas Arena in Paris.

Srikanth, currently ranked 24th in the BWF rankings, will next face China's Lu Guan Zu in the second round on Thurday (March 7). The Chinese shuttler got the better of Srikanth's compatriot Prannoy in the first round match.

Asian Games bronze medallist Prannoy went down in straight games to the 17th ranked Chinese shuttler by a scoreline of 17-21, 17-21 in the men's singles opening round match that lasted for 56 minutes on court 3.

Later in the day, the lone women's singles shuttler from the country and former World Champion PV Sindhu fought back from a game down to overcome Canada's Michelle Li by a scoreline of 20-22, 22-20, 21-19 in an hour and 20 minutes on Court 1.

The two-time Olympic medallist from India will next face Beiwen Zhang of USA in the second round match on Thursday (March 7). The American Zhang defeated fifth seed Carolina Marin of Spain in the opener by a scoreline of 14-21, 21-16, 21-17 on court 4.

Earlier on Tuesday (March 6), Priyanshu Rajawat and doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa & Tanisha Crasto made first round exits following contrasting results, while two other doubles teams and another singles shuttler progressed to the second round.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Lakshya Sen on Tuesday (march 5) advanced to the second round of French Open Badminton 2024 tournament following hard-fought wins.

While Satwik-Chirag saw off Malaysia's Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, Treesa-Gayatri overcame compatriots Crasto-Ponnappa duo, and Sen came from a game down to beat Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama.

They will return to the courts in Paris on Thursday (March 7) for the second round matches. Satwik and Chirag will face another Malaysian pair in Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee in men's doubles category.

Meanwhile, Jolly and Gopichand will face Japanese pair Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in women's doubles second round match. Sen will take on third seed Li Shi Feng from China in men's singles competition.