Paris: Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap were both ousted in the opening round of the men’s singles at the French Open badminton tournament here Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth fought hard for 55 minutes against second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei before losing 15-21, 21-7, 21-14 while Kashyap was no match for Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus, losing 11-21, 9-21.
Sameer Verma too suffered the same fate as he lost 22-20, 18-21, 18-21 to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the first round. But it was close call and could have gone the Indian’s way had he not missed two crucial smashes in the third game.
Shubhanker Dey now remains the lone Indian in men’s singles contest, having progressed to the second round where he will be up against Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia.
India’s mixed doubles challenge also ended in the opening round with the ouster of the pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa and Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy.
Rankireddy and Ponappa lost 17-21, 18-21 against fourth seed Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung of Korea, while Chopra and Reddy combination was shown the door by England’s Chris Adcock and Gabriellle Adcock 13-21, 18-21.
PTI