French Open: Satwik-Chirag keep calm to make Rd 2

Paris, March 5

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the second round of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament with a hard-fought win against Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi here today. The world No. 1 pair, which had claimed the title in 2022, secured its fifth victory in eight meetings against the world No. 12 Malaysians, winning 21-13 24-22 in 47 minutes.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also progressed to the second round after claiming a 16-21 21-19 21-17 win over Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto in an all-Indian match in women’s doubles. The two pairs are fighting to qualify for the Paris Games. While Tanisha and Ashwini are 11th, Treesa and Gayatri are 14th in the Olympics qualification ranking.

In men’s singles, World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen eked out a 15-21 21-15 21-3 win over Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama.

Priyanshu Rajawat suffered an 8-21 15-21 defeat at the hands of top seed Victor Axelsen.