French Open 2021 Badminton: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen Sail Into Third Round; Sameer Verma Retires Midway

Paris: India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Danish player Line Christophersen in straight sets to advance into the third round of the women’s singles event at the French Open Super 750 tournament on Thursday. Meanwhile, young and rising star – Lakshya Sen also advanced to the men’s singles quarterfinals with a straight-game victory over Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew but Sameer Verma retired midway due to an injury at the French Open 2021.

The 26-year-old Sindhu started the match on a positive note as she won the first game 21-19 after a hard-fought battle. After getting into the groove, the reigning world champion hit the straps immediately and blanked Christophersen 21-9 in the second game to storm into the third round.

In the men’s singles, Lakshya won his second-round match 21-17, 21-13 in 40 minutes. He will clash with either Korea’s Heo Kwanghee or Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei next.

Sameer won the first game 21-16 but couldn’t complete his match against Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, retiring after losing the second game 12-21 due to an injury.

The Indian had also retired at the Denmark Open quarterfinals last week after suffering a calf muscle injury.

Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa put up a gallant fight before losing 21-15 17-21 19-21 to second-seeded Indonesian pairing of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti.

Lakshya galloped to a 13-7 lead early on but Loh reeled off seven straight points to briefly grab the lead. The Indian, however, didn’t allow his opponent to ran away as he moved to a 17-16 lead and pocketed the game comfortably.

In the second game, Lakshya led 7-4 and even though Loh clawed back at 8-8, the Indian moved to 13-11 soon before shutting the door with five straight points from 16-13.

(With Agency Inputs)