French Open: Injuries, Upsets and Sindhu's Semifinal Berth

The BWF French Open in Paris saw a mix of strong performances and setbacks for Indian shuttlers on Friday. The highlight was PV Sindhu's 21-13, 21-14 win over Chinese Taipei's Chiu Pin-chian, which sent her into the semifinals.

Sindhu dominated the first game, winning 21-13. In the second, she opened up an 11-2 lead at the break and never allowed Chiu back into the contest, closing it out 21-14. Her next opponent will be either Indonesia's Putri Wardani, the fifth seed, or Japan's Hina Akechi. Sindhu had earlier beaten Japan's Riko Gunji 21-12, 21-16 in 44 minutes.

India's Ashmita Chaliha lost in the quarterfinals to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, going down 10-21, 21-17, 16-21. The defeat came just a day after Chaliha had stunned world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi 21-19, 21-18, a victory that marked her first Super 750 quarterfinal appearance.

In men's singles, Ayush Shetty's tournament ended due to injury. He lost the first game 17-21 to Japan's sixth seed Kodai Naraoka and trailed 6-11 in the second when he was forced to retire. Earlier this year, Ayush had beaten Kidambi Srikanth in the first round of the French Open.

Lakshya Sen withdrew before his first-round match. In Paris, the doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, also exited in the first round.