Badminton: Sindhu storms into BWF French Open semifinals

Paris, October 23 (IANS) Indian badminton ace and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu sailed into the semifinal of the BWF French Open, beating Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Pin-Chian 21-13, 21-14 in Paris on Friday.The Indian made a good start, winning the first game 21-13. She took that momentum into the second game and led 11-2 at the interval. Chiu showed signs of fightback, but Sindhu closed out the win, taking the game 21-14.Sindhu, who won a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games followed by a bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will next meet either fifth seed Putri Wardani of Indonesia or Hina Akechi of Japan for a place in the final.Earlier, Sindhu comfortably saw off Japan’s Riko Gunji 21-12, 21-16 in 44 minutes to advance. Notably, Gunji had knocked out Unnati Hooda in the opening round.Meanwhile, Ashmita Chaliha's dream run came to an end as the youngster fell 10-21, 21-17, 16-21 to Japan's Nozomi Okhuhara in the quarterfinals on Friday.Chaliha was enjoying a memorable week as she claimed the biggest victory of her career, a 21-19, 21-18 win over world No.3 Akane Yamaguchi to reach her maiden Super 750 quarterfinal on Thursday.Having lost to Yamaguchi just a week earlier in Denmark, Chaliha had a different mindset in Paris. The world No. 36 Indian, who won her maiden BWF World Tour title at the Korea Masters Super 300 earlier this year, drew confidence from her previous encounter and was better prepared to deal with one of Yamaguchi’s most dangerous shots.Meanwhile, Ayush Shetty’s campaign ended in the men’s singles when he retired hurt against sixth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan, having lost the opening game 21-17 and trailing 11-6 in the second.Ayush Shetty had beaten Kidambi Srikanth in the opening round of this year’s French Open. Lakshya Sen had withdrawn ahead of his opening-round match.Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand had also suffered opening-round exits in Paris.