Srikanth, Sindhu progress to second round; Marin wins first

Srikanth, who had clinched his third title of the season at Denmark Open Super Series premier last week, emerged victorious after his opponent Germany's Fabian Roth retired at 0-3 in the opening game.

The World No 8 Indian will face Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, whom he had beaten in straight games last week en route to his title.

Sindhu, who also has been in good form this season with two titles and a silver at the World Championship, saw off Spain's Beatriz Corrales 21-19 21-18 to set up a clash with Japan's Sayaka Takahashi.

Men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too made a positive start as he disposed off France's Bastian Kersaudy and Julien Maio 21-12 21-14 in 30 minutes.

They will face Denmark's sixth seed Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding next.

Meanwhile, Spanish badminton star Carolina Marin kicked off her 2017 French Open campaign with a 21-17, 21-18 victory over Japan's Minatsu Mitani.

Mitani took a 16-12 lead at Stade Pierre de Coubertin here when Marin missed two consecutive smashes, but the world No. 4 reeled off nine of the next 10 points and clinched the first game when the Japanese player netted a return of serve on Wednesday, reports Efe.

The Spaniard got off to a better start in the second game, grabbing an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval and then extending that advantage to 19-10 when Mitani sent a smash wide.

Marin took her fo ot off the gas as Mitani saved five straight match points to make the score 20-18, but the 2016 Olympic gold medallist clinched the first-round victory when the Japanese player netted a drop shot.

Next up for Marin in the second round will be 32nd-ranked South Korean Lee Jang-mi, a 21-14, 14-21, 21-10 winner over Japan's Sayaka Sato.

Marin, winner of the French Open in 2015, has been drawn in the tough top half of the women's singles draw, which also includes Chinese defending champion He Bingjiao, Taiwanese world No. 1 and top seed Tai Tzu-ying and Thai world No. 9 Ratchanok Intanon, winner of last week's Denmark Open.

In men's singles action on Wednesday, second-seeded South Korean Son Wan-ho, the world No. 2, was stunned in the first round by Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-16, 21-19.

Paris: India's star badminton player Saina Nehwal failed to get past Japan's Akane Yamaguchi yet again as she crashed out of the French Open in the second round on Thursday. Nehwal, who beat Denmark's rising shuttler Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 21-14, 11-21, 21-10 in the first round, went down 9-21, 21-23 in the second round. Yamaguchi took 39 minutes to defeat Nehwal for the third time this year. Nehwal had got off to an amazing start at the Denmark Open after she defeated Rio Olympics gold medallist Carolina Marin in the first round, but she failed to get past Yamaguchi in the quarter-finals.