French Open 2021: PV Sindhu enters semi-finals; Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag ousted

Paris: India’s double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu continued her impressive run at the French Open badminton tournament by sailing into the women’s singles semi-finals with a straight-game win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan on Friday. Sindhu, seeded third, scripted a convincing 21-14 21-14 win over eighth seeded in 38 minutes to extend her dominating head-to-head record against the Thai to 14-1. The 26-year-old from Hyderabad had beaten Busanan at Denmark Open also, last week. Sindhu, the reigning world champion, defeated Denmark’s Line Christophersen, ranked 24th in the world 21-19, 21-9 on late Thursday night to enter the quarters. The World No 7 Indian will now cross swords with Japan’s World No 15 Sayaka Takahashi in the last four on Saturday. However, young Lakshya Sen’s fine run ended in the men’s singles quarter-final after he lost 17-21 15-21 to Korea’s Heo Kwanghee in 43 minutes. The 20-year-old from Almora had notched up a comfortable straight game win over Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew to grab a place in the last eight. Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also couldn’t cross the quarter-final hurdle, losing 21-18 18-21 17-21 to fourth seeded Malaysian combine of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik. On Thursday, Satwik and Chirag beat MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila 15-21, 21-10, 21-19 in an all-Indian clash to reach the quarter-finals. It was a clinical display by Sindhu in the quarter-finals as she zoomed to a 5-1 lead initially before moving to 11-6 at the break. She continued in the same vein after the interval, jumping to 18-7 to eventually pocket the opening game comfortably. The second game turned out to be a close battle with Sindhu and Busanan engaging in a fierce battle. However, Sindhu broke off at 8-8 to grab a two-point advantage at the interval. Sindhu once again stepped up after the break to climb to 16-10 and 20-12. Busanan saved two match points before Sindhu sealed the contest. Men’s singles player Sourabh Verma, however, bowed out of the competition after losing 12-21 9-21 to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the second round.