French Open badminton: Kidambi Srikanth suffers agonising defeat to Kento Momota in second round; Satwik-Ashwini win

Paris: Kidambi Srikanth suffered a heartbreaking defeat against top seed Kento Momota to make a second round exit but India’s mixed doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Wednesday. The Rio quarter-finalist played his heart out to match the Japanese and also held two-point lead towards the end of the decider but ended up losing the men’s singles second round 18-21, 22-20, 21-19 in 79-minute match. Srikanth had lost to Momota last week also at Denmark Open but he produced a much better display in Paris and came agonisingly close to outwitting the two-time world champion only to fall short in the end. Rankireddy and Ponappa, the world number 24 pair beat Denmark’s Mathias Thyrri and Mai Surrow 21-19 21-15 in 37 minutes. They are likely to face second seeded Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti next. Srikanth ran up a 4-0 lead but Momota clawed back to level the score. He again moved to a 8-5 advantage only to see the Japanese eke out a slender 11-10 lead at the break. After the break, Momota kept his nose ahead despite Srikanth snapping at his heels and drawing parity at 18-18 at one stage. The second game was even more engrossing contest as lead exchanged hands many times before Momota managed to take a 11-9 advantage at the breather. The Japanese held two game points but Srikanth staged a superb foughback and reeled off four straight points to roar back into the contest. The decider started with a similar intensity with Srikanth heading to 9-6 advantage but Momota made it 11-10 at the break. The Indian moved to 19-17 but a couple of errors cost him the match. India’s doubles Olympic medallist PV Sindhu along with other Indians will compete later in the day.