French Open 2019: Saina Nehwal moves into the second round while fellow Indians crash out

It was a disappointing day for Indian shuttlers even as Saina Nehwal and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved into the 2nd round of the Super 750 French Open played at Paris on Wednesday. 

In the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth's poor form continued as he lost to 2nd ranked Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in three sets; 21-15, 7-21, 14-21, to be knocked in the first round. Srikanth gave a tough fight to Chou for 55 minutes, but could not maintain the intensity. 

Parupalli Kashyap was knocked out in the first round by Ng Ka Long Angus in straight sets; 11-21, 9-21. It was a disappointing performance by Kashyap who never gave a competition to the Hong Kong opponent. 

Sameer Verma suffered the same fate as he lost to Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in three sets; 22-20, 18-21, 18-21. It was a close fight in the first game before Verma held his nerves to win the first set at 22-20. 

In the next two games, Verma could not maintain the intensity and committed a lot of mistakes. 

The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to the fourth seeds Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung of South Korea in two straight games; 17-21, 18-21. 

Also, Pranav Chopra and Sikki Reddy exited in the first round as they lost to Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock in two straight games by 13-21, 18-21. 

The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy went down fighting to Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of England in three sets by 19-21, 22-20, 15-21. There was more disappointment as the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy lost to Lee Shin and Shin SC of South Korea. 

The women’s doubles pair lost in three sets by 21-16, 13-21, 17-21. 

On the other hand, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their first round match against J Maas and R Tabeling of Netherlands in two straight sets by 21-16, 21-14. 

It was a dominating performance by the young Indian pair who played with aggression and won the match easily. They will now take on Mohammad Ashan and Hendra Setiwan of Indonesia in the 2nd round. 

After first round exits, Saina Nehwal defeated Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in two straight sets by 23-21, 21-17. It was a tightly contested affair between these players right from the word go. 

In the first game, both players fought for each point. Saina was trailing, but fought back strongly to level the score and continued till 21-21. The Indian held her nerves and won the first set 23-21. 

The 2nd game was close too. Cheung had a slender 11-10 lead at the interval. After the interval, the fight for each point continued till 17-17. 

Saina took 4 points in succession to win the set and match at 21-17. She will take on Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the next match.

PV Sindhu, Subhankar Dey, Saina Nehwal and the men’s doubles pair will play their 2nd round matches today.