French Open 2021 | Kidambi Srikanth loses to Kento Momota again, Saina Nehwal injured

10/27/2021

It was yet another heartbreak for India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, as he lost his opening round match to world no.1 Kento Momota 18-21, 22-20, 19-21. Even though this was his 11th straight defeat against the Japanese shuttler, but Srikanth displayed signs of improving form in the match.

Kento Momota proved to be Kidambi Srikanth's nemesis once again, as the Japanese shuttler beat the struggling Indian 18-21, 22-20, 19-21, at the French Open on Wednesday. This was Srikanth's 11th straight loss to Momota. After the match was tied at 1-1, Srikanth had come tantalisingly close to beating Momota while leading 19-17 in the third game, but the Japanese secured four straight points to close the match.

On the other hand, London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal retired from her opening round match against Japan's Sayaka Takahashi. Interestingly, Nehwal was trailing in the match 21-11, 9-2.

2014 CWG gold medalist P Kashyap too was eliminated in the first round of men's singles. He succumbed 17-21, 21-17, 11-21 to Frenchman Brice Leverdez. The relatively new doubles pair of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila beat Joshua Magee/Paul Reynolds 21-13, 21-7. In the mixed doubles, the world no.24 team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa beat Mathias Thyrri/Mai Surrow 21-19, 21-15.

Meanwhile, PV Sindhu will begin her French Open campaign against Denmark’s Julie Dawall Jakobsen later on Wednesday.