World champion PV Sindhu began her French Open campaign with an easy win over Michelle Li in the women’s singles first round in Paris on Tuesday. The world No 6 Sindhu, who has been struggling of late, beat Li 21-15, 21-13 in a match that lasted 44 minutes.
Sindhu had a 5-2 head-to-head record over the world No 8 Canadian before Tuesday’s match. The 24-year-old had beaten Li during the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia in their previous meeting. Sindhu will play against world No 26 Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in the second round of the BWF Super 750 tournament.
Since claiming her first World Championships title in August, Sindhu has looked awfully out-of-form as she had failed to cross the second round in three tournaments. She faltered in the second and first rounds at the China Open and Korea Open respectively last month. Sindhu again exited in the second round in straight games against Korea’s An Se Young in Denmark Open last week.
In the men’s singles, Subhankar Dey notched up an upset win over Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia to advance to the second round. The world No 42 Indian rallied to beat his world number 17 opponent 15-21, 21-14, 21-17 in a one hour 18 minutes first-round match.
This was Dey’s second win over the Indonesian, a former world No 3, this year as the Indian had won 14-21, 22-20, 21-11 in the India Open in March. Dey had lost to Sugiarto in the New Zealand Open last year.