Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap crossed the opening hurdle to enter the second round of the USD 275,000 French Open Super Series at Stade Pierre de Coubertin here today.
Top seed Saina tamed World No. 14 Michelle Li of Canada 21-18 21-13 in a 42-minute women’s singles match, while eighth seed Kashyap saw off local shuttler Thomas Rouxel 21-11 22-20 in a men’s singles contest.
Olympic bronze-medallist Saina will next take on the winner of the match between Germany’s Karin Schnaase and Japan’s Minatsu Mitani. Interestingly, Mitani had ended Saina’s run at the Denmark Open last week.
Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap will fight it out against the winner of the match between Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk and England’s Rajiv Ouseph.
However, it was curtains for World No. 5 Kidambi Srikanth as he went down fighting to Tian Houwei 15-21 21-13 11-21 in a 63-minute match. This is Srikanth’s fourth loss to the World No 10 Chinese this season.
