Paris: Former World No 1 Saina Nehwal crashed out in the first round of the French Open badminton championship as Indian players had a poor day in the BWF World Tour Super 750 event.
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was the only one to survive the opening round as Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto went down in the mixed doubles first round while the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too went down to the sixth-seeded Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
In the women’s singles, the unseeded Saina, a former champion in French Open, went down fighting to Yvonne Li of Germany at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, losing 21-13, 17-21, 19-21 in an encounter that lasted a few seconds less than one hour.
The decider was closely fought as the lead changed hands at regular intervals as neither player gave an inch. Things went neck-and-neck till 17-17 before the German player went on to win the third game 21-19 and emerged the winner.
In men’s doubles, the World No.8 pair of Satwik and Chirag came back from a game down to win in three games, beating French siblings Cristo Popov and Toma Junior Popov, winning 19-21, 21-9, 21-13 in just over an hour on the court.
