Kidambi Srikanth’s campaign ended after three matches against Lu Guang Xue.
For the second consecutive match, PV Sindhu bounced back to win the French Open 2024 badminton tournament. On Thursday, the Indian badminton player beat USA’s Beiwen Zhang 13-21, 21-10, 21-14 in the second round of the BWF Super 750 event.
PV Sindhu, who defeated Canada’s Michelle Lee on Wednesday, was comprehensively beaten in the first game at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle in Paris. However, the two-time Olympic medalist starred together in the second game.
Going into the break with an 11-7 lead, world number 11 PV Sindhu managed to open up a staggering eight-point lead and take the game comfortably.
In the decider, Zhang, ranked 10th in the badminton rankings, led 4–2 with two decisive smashes. However, Sindhu won a 34-shot rally to restore parity at 5-5 and close out the match in the 55th minute.
“Though I lost the first match, I think I have not lost hope, and I will continue to fight,” said PV Sindhu. “In the second and third games, I made sure to control my mistakes and I kept the shuttle on the court. You always want to perform really well when it matters most, whether it’s at the end of a game or a tournament like the Olympics.”
The 28-year-old reached the quarter-finals of the BWF event at the Denmark Open in October last year.
Sindhu will now look to Olympic champion Chen Yufei of People’s Republic of China. The Indian shuttler enjoys a 6-5 head-to-head record against current world No. 2 Yufei.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth’s French Open campaign came to an end when he lost 21-19, 12-21, 20-22 to China’s Lu Guang Xu, who was also responsible for knocking out HS Prannoy. First episode.
The first game proved to be a neck-to-neck encounter between the two. With the scores level at 19-19, Srikanth took an early lead in the match by sending back-to-back smashes. However, Guang Xu equalized in the second game as the former world No. 1 was guilty of several errors.
In the final game, Srikanth led 18-15 at one stage but Guang Xu clawed his way back into the match and then capitalized on Srikanth’s inevitable errors in the closing stages to take the match.
In men’s doubles, the world No. 1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made quick work of Malaysia’s Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Woon to win their match 21-13, 21-12.
Lakshya Sen will also be India’s target in the men’s singles second round against Li Shifeng.