French Open: Sindhu advances to 2nd round, Saina pulls out with injury

Paris, Oct 28: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu beat Denmark's Julie Jakobsen to advance to the second round in the women's singles event at the French Open 2021 badminton tournament, here on Wednesday.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist and reigning world champion, outclassed her opponent Jakobsen 21-15, 21-18 in the first round match. She will next face Line Christophersen of Denmark at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in Paris.

The world No 10 pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also progressed to the men's doubles round of 16 after beating Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 18-21, 21-17, 21-13.

Meanwhile, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was forced to retire from her opening round match with an injury. Saina was trailing 21-11, 9-2 against Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in her women's singles clash when she decided to concede.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Parupalli Kashyap also went down in the opening round of the men's singles. Kashyap lost 17-21, 21-17, 11-21 to Frenchman Brice Leverdez.

Another Indian player and former world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth suffered a 18-21, 22-20, 19-21 loss to Kento Momota of Japan, the current world No. 1, in the men's singles.

Srikanth lost the first game but bounced back in the second to take it to a decider. In the third game, the Indian was leading 19-17 but Momota won four straight points to close out the match.