French Open: Fighting PV Sindhu Loses Epic Battle, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty In Semi-finals

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stayed on course for the men's doubles title after reaching the semifinals with a straight-game win, but PV Sindhu fell short in the women's singles quarterfinals at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Friday. The world No. 1 Indian pair, who had won the title in 2022, cruised into the semifinals with a 21-19 21-13 victory over Thailand's world No. 32 Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle.

The Asian Games champions, who had defeated Malaysian pair of Man Wei Chong and Kai Woo Tee on Thursday night, will next meet world champions and third seeds Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae, who had beaten the Indian duo at the India Open final in January this year.

Earlier, Sindhu, who is on a comeback trail from a four-month-long injury layoff, produced a gallant fight giving ample display of her strokeplay and physical fitness during a marathon one hour and 32-minute battle against Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China.

The two-time Olympic medallist, however, had to settle for a 24-22 17-21 18-21 loss to the second seed and defending champion Chen in the riveting last eight battle here.

Sindhu vs Chen ========== The last time Sindhu had beaten the world No. 2 Chen was en route to her 2019 World Championships gold. Since then the Indian has lost to the Chinese twice in the last two meetings although she held a better 6-5 head-to-head record against her opponent coming into the crucial tie.

Playing a top-class opponent after quite sometime, Sindhu didn't show any sign off the left knee injury that had pushed her out of the circuit since October last year.

There was nothing to separate the two as Sindhu produced an attacking display and