It was an impactful start but a drastic end. India’s singles challenge at the French Open BWF World Tour Super 750 Tournament came to a halt after shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and Saina Nehwal got defeated in their respective quarter-final matches.
Srikanth got dumped straight to his fifth loss against the World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan. The defending champion suffered straight games 16-21, 19-21 defeat at the hands of the Japanese opponent.
Srikanth last defeat against Momota was in the semi-finals of the Denmark Open last week.
Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu lost to He Bingjiao of China 13-21, 16-21. This was Sindhu’s second consecutive loss against the Chinese shuttler years after a straight defeat in Indonesia Open in July. This win made Momota raise his level with a head-to-head record to 7-5 against the Indian.
However, teen shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty gave India a notable journey by storming straight into the semi-finals. On Thursday, the Indian doubles stood strong and concreted their hold by ousting two Chinese pairs.
Saina’s jinx continued as she slipped from a position of strength and trembled to her 12th consecutive defeat against Tai Tzu Ying 20-22, 11-21.
