India’s PV Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, on Tuesday, won their respective first round matches at the ongoing 2023 French Open Super 750 in Rennes.
Sindhu, who has reached two semi-finals in the last two weeks, once again came from a game down against world No. 7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to enter the Round of 16 in a contest which lasted 69 minutes.
Back in the top 10 women’s singles world ranking after a gap of six months, Sindhu did not have the best of starts to her campaign as she lost the first game 12-21.
The Indian, however, soon bounced back to win the next two games 21-18, 21-15 to get off to a winning start in the tournament.
This is Sindhu’s second consecutive win against Tunjung after having won against her at the Denmark Open last week. She had lost to the Indonesian twice this season.
Earlier in the day, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty registered a straightforward 21-13, 21-13 win over France’s Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar.
This was the Indian pair’s first appearance since climbing to the world No 1 ranking after their title triumph at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games earlier in the month. Rankireddy and Shetty were slated to play at the Denmark Open last week but had pulled out of the tournament in the eleventh hour.
Later in the day, the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda lost 6-21, 16-21 to Li Yi Jing and Luo Xi Min of China to draw curtains on their campaign in the very first round.