Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, K. Srikanth and Sai Praneeth joined P.V. Sindhu in the second round of the French Open but it was curtains for Sameer Verma at here on Wednesday.
Saina, who finished runner-up in the Denmark Open last week, outclassed Japan’s Saena Kawakami 21-11, 21-11 in the women’s singles, while defending champion Srikanth beat Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19, 21-13 in his opening round match. Sai Praneeth won against Brazil’s Ygor Coelho 21-13, 21-17.
Goes down fighting
Sameer, who had reached the quarterfinals last week, went down fighting 16-21, 21-17, 21-15 to Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
The results (first round): Men: K. Srikanth bt Wong Wing Ki Vincent (HK) 21-19, 21-13; Sai Praneeth bt Ygor Coelho (Bra) 21-13, 21-17; Jonatan Christie (Ina) bt Sameer Verma 16-21, 21-17, 21-15.
Doubles: Manu Attri & B. Sumeeth Reddy bt Min Hyuk Kang & Kim Won Ho (Kor) 21-18, 21-17; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty bt Jones Ralfy Jansen & Josche Zurwonne (Ger) 21-13 21-15.
Women: Saina Nehwal bt Saena Kawakami (Jpn) 21-11, 21-11. Doubles: J. Meghana & Poorvisha S. Ram bt Lise Jaques & Flore Vandenhoucke (Bel) 21-12 21-12.
Mixed doubles: Chris & Gabrielle Adcock (Eng) bt Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Ashwini Ponnappa 24-22, 18-21, 21-19; Zheng Siwei & Huang Yaqiong (Chn) bt Rohan Kapoor & Kuhoo Garg 21-5, 21-10.