French Open badminton 2024: PV Sindhu loses to Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei in quarter-finals

Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu’s charge at the French Open 2024 came to a halt after she went down fighting against Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei in the women’s singles quarter-finals in Paris on Friday.

After taking the opening game, world No. 11 Sindhu lost the following two games against the world No. 2 shuttler from the People’s Republic of China to go down 24-22, 17-21, 18-21 in 92 minutes at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle.

It was Sindhu’s third straight three-game battle at the French Open. The Indian badminton player, who is competing in her first BWF World Tour event since returning from injury, secured close victories over Canada’s Michelle Li and USA’s Beiwen Zhang in the earlier rounds.

“The most important thing is to stay at 100 percent, both mentally and physically, and also to stay injury-free,” said the 28-year-old Sindhu after losing her match on Friday.

“I'm happy that I came back and I'm doing well and I think the overall tournament went well for me. I'm really looking forward to playing here again during the Olympics,” Sindhu added.

Following the exit, Sindhu will now turn her attention towards the All England Open which gets underway next week.

Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles, the world No. 1 Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty marched into the semi-finals with a clinical 21-19, 21-13 win over 32nd-ranked Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren of Thailand.

Satwik and Chirag, who won the French Open in 2022, will be against reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of the Republic of Korea in the semi-finals.

In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen produced an incredible effort to knock out Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew, a former world champion, in the quarter-finals. He registered a 19-21, 21-15, 21-13 victory in 76 minutes to book a spot in the semi-finals against reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.

Sen had to deal with a bruise to his finger in the first game but found his rhythm as the match went on. This will be Sen’s first semi-final appearance since Japan Open 2023.

Later in the day, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 21-18, 21-7 against Chinese pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in the women’s doubles.