French Open: PV Sindhu, doubles pair Satwik-Chirag advance to quarter-finals

Paris: India’s double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu cruised into the quarter-finals of the French Open badminton tournament with a straight-game win over Line Christophersen of Denmark in the women’s singles second round. Sindhu, seeded third, prevailed 21-19, 21-9 over Christophersen, ranked 24th in the world, in 37 minutes late Thursday night. The reigning world champion will face eighth seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the quarterfinals on Friday. Sindhu had beaten Busanan at Denmark Open last week. Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded fifth, also beat MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila 15-21, 21-10, 21-19 in an all-Indian clash to reach the quarter-finals. The duo will meet fourth seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik next. 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. On Thursday, young Lakshya Sen had sailed into third round of the Super 750 event with a comfortable win over Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew.