PV Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag storm into second round of French Open

India's PV Sindhu quelled a strong challenge from Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to enter the women's singles second round of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Tuesday. Sindhu prevailed over Tunjung 12-21, 21-18, 21-15 after 69 minutes of intense contest. Earlier, the newly-crowned world number one pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the men's doubles second round.

The Asian Games gold medallists, who had skipped the Denmark Open super 750 last week, beat world No. 34 Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar 21-13, 21-13 in a lop-sided contest.

Satwik and Chirag will next meet three-time world champions



Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia. The 2014 Asian Games gold medallists defeated Chinese Taipei's Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.

It took just 35 minutes for the Indian pair to get past Lucas and Ronan, who lagged behind right from the start as Satwik and Chirag dominated the proceedings, leading 11-6 at the interval and kept moving ahead to close the opening game.

The second game had a similar script as Satwik and Chirag jumped to an 11-6 advantage once again and kept their stranglehold to seal the issue. On Wednesday, Kidambi Srikanth will be up against France's Tomav Popov Junior while Lakshya Sen will take on another Frenchman, Arnaud Merkle.