Indian badminton players face early exits at French Open

India’s top-seeded badminton players suffered early defeats at the French Open Super 750 tournament in Paris. Fifth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were eliminated in the first round after a three-game match against France’s Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov, losing 19-21, 21-18, 13-21. During the match, Chirag Shetty’s racket broke during a smash attempt.

In the women’s doubles category, World Championship bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also exited in the opening round, falling 17-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chih-Chun and Yang Chu Yun.

In contrast to these setbacks, young Indian shuttlers Tanvi Sharma and Ashmita Chaliha successfully advanced to the second round. Other prominent Indian players, including P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, also entered the tournament seeking to recover from recent form fluctuations.