In-form men’s doubles pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were knocked out of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament after losing against Indonesia’s new pairing of Rahmat Hidayat and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in Cesson-Sevigne on Wednesday. The Indians, who had beaten this duo last week at Denmark Open on their way to the semifinal, lost the match 18-21 20-22 in 42 minutes. Satwik-Chirag, who has risen back to world No 3 and are headed for the season-ending World Tour Finals, were subdued in the opening game, but had a game point in the second game to force a decider that they couldn’t convert.
It marks the first time Satwik and Chirag have lost this early at their favourite tournament on tour, an event that they have won twice in the past in 2022 and 2024, while also reaching the final in 2019 in what was one of their earliest breakthrough weeks.
In an otherwise disappointing day, rising Indian shuttler Unnati Hooda brought some cheer as she reached the round of 16 with a fine come-from-behind win against Malaysia’s top women’s singles shuttler Letshanaa Karupathevan. The 18-year-old Hooda, who came in the tournament on the back of good performances in the BWF Junior World Championships in Guwahati this month, was off to a slow start when she was outplayed in the opening game. But she rallied back to win 11-21 21-13 21-16 in 63 minutes. She sets up a tough second-round clash against the second seed Wang Zhi Yi.
The other Indians in the second round are Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde in mixed doubles, after a 21-12, 21-19 victory over the Ukrainian combination of Oleksii Titov and Yevheniia Kantemyr on Tuesday. The Indian duo will next face local favourite and World Championships bronze medallists Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, seeded fifth. In women’s doubles Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singh defeated compatriots Panda sisters Rutaparna and Swetaparna 21-11, 21-9.
In men’s singles, Ayush Shetty bowed out in the first round to Japan’s Koki Watanabe, the Indian going down in two hard-fought games 19-21 19-21 to the seasoned campaigner from Japan. In women’s singles, Anmol Kharb was leading 11-6 in the first game against South Korea’s all-conquering superstar An Se-young but the reigning Olympic champion recovered quickly to win 15-21 9-21. In another match, Anupama Upadhyaya lost to China’s Han Yue 15-21 11-21.
On Tuesday, it was yet another for Lakshya Sen this year as his season continued to blow hot and cold. He suffered a straight-games defeat to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen. Lakshya, who had reached the finals of Hong Kong Open, looked off-colour from the start to eventually go down 7-21 16-21 to the world number 29 Nhat, whom he had beaten in the opening round last week at Denmark Open in three games. Lakshya was repeatedly hitting the shuttle wide and into the net while struggling to find rhythm against his opponent’s steep smashes. The Indian’s deep tosses often missed the lines, and his attacking play lacked precision as he trailed 2-7 early in the opening game.
Despite doing most of the hard work in rallies, Lakshya frequently faltered on the finishing shot. He was six points behind at the interval after another wide return and never recovered as Nhat moved to 19-7 before sealing the opener with a crisp cross-court winner. The change of ends brought little change in fortune for the world No. 16 Indian, who quickly fell behind 1-6 in the second game. Though he narrowed the gap to 4-6, a series of unforced errors saw Nhat restore an 11-5 advantage at the break.
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Lakshya mounted a brief fightback to 11-15 but mistakes at crucial points again hurt his chances. At 14-17, a long rally ended with a backhand into the net, and two more errors gave Nhat six match points. The Indian saved two before the Irish shuttler finished the contest with a deceptive cross-court shot.
With PTI inputs
