Srikanth loses in Round 1 of French Open

Paris, October 23 

India’s Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap lost in the opening round of the men’s singles at the French Open here today.

While Srikanth fought hard for 55 minutes against second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei before losing 15-21 21-7 21-14, 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.

Subhankar Dey now remains the lone Indian in the men’s singles contest, having progressed to the second round where he will be up against Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia.

India’s challenge, however, came to an end in the opening round of the mixed doubles event with the ouster of the pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy.

 In the men’s doubles event, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the second round but it was curtains for Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy. In the women’s doubles event, Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost. — PTI