DOUBLE Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and young Indian shuttler Ashmita Chaliha sailed into the women’s singles quarterfinals with straight-game wins over Japan’s Riko Gunji and Akane Yamaguchi, respectively, at the USD 950,000 French Open badminton tournament here on Thursday. Unseeded Ashmita was the star of the day, upsetting World No 2 and third seed Yamaguchi 21- 19, 21-18 in a secondround match that lasted 37 minutes. Sindhu then prevailed over Gunji 21- 12, 21-16 in a match lasting 44 minutes to progress to the quarter-finals.

 

Earlier in the day, India’s Ayush Shetty and Tanvi Sharma bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals of their respective events. Taking the court first among the Indians, Tanvi was no match for World No 1 and top seed An Se Young of South Korea, losing 11-21, 14-21 in a 37-minute women’s singles match. Later, Shetty forfeited his match against sixth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan due to an undisclosed injury while trailing 17-21, 6-11 in a men’s singles second-round match. Shetty had earlier defeated compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in the opening round to progress in the tournament.