French Open: PV Sindhu avenges Denmark Open loss with crushing win over Beiwen Zhang

Paris: India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu breezed into the second round of the women’s singles event at French Open after crushing Beiwen Zhang in straight games for a revenge win on Tuesday. Sindhu, seeded third, disposed of unseeded Zhang 21-17 21-8 in just 34 minutes to avenge her loss at the hands of the same opponent in the opening round of the Denmark Open, last week. [caption id=“attachment_4880351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of PV Sindhu. AFP[/caption] By virtue of this win, Sindhu has managed to break her hattrick of losses against the American and equalled the head-to-head record at 3-3. The agony of a first-round exit at Denmark Open still in her mind, Sindhu, however, started slowly as Zhang took a marginal lead. But the Indian rode on her aggressive approach to roar back to a 7-4 and then a 10-6 lead. The American then stunned her fancied opponent to pocket five straight points to reclaim the lead at 11-10. It was neck-and-neck thereafter till 16 points before Sindhu seized the initiative and pocketed the first game 21-17. The second game too was a close affair initially as both the players were locked at 3-3 at one stage before world no. 3 Sindhu upped her game to take an 11-6 lead. Zhang managed to garner two more points before Sindhu sealed the affair in quick time. The Rio Olympics silver medallist will next face the winner of the first-round match between Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong and Japan’s Sayaka Sato. However, it was curtains for less-fancied Indian men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramachandran as they lost 14-21 17-21 to Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yunchen in the opening round.