BWF French Open Super 750 tournament: Badminton players Sameer, Prannoy advance with three-game wins over Ginting, Daren

PARIS: Sameer Verma registered a terrific win over world no. 6 Anthony Ginting in a three-game men's singles contest of the BWF French Open Super 750 tournament here at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin on Wednesday. With this win, Sameer advanced to the second round of the BWF World Tour event.

In another three-game contest, H.S. Prannoy became the second Indian to seal his berth in the round of 16. Prannoy beat world no. 28 Liew Daren of Malaysia 21-16, 16-21, 21-16 at court one.

On court three, Sameer dominated the first game and cruised to a 21-15 win. But then, Ginting bounced back to snap the closely-contested second game 23-21.

In the third game, the world no. 31 Sameer lived up to the challenge of the Indonesian and clinched the match with a 22-20 win to register his second win over Ginting in four meetings.

In men's doubles, however, M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila exited the tournament, suffering a straight-games (21-15, 21-16) defeat to Indonesian pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto.

Former World No 1 Saina Nehwal crashed out in the first round of the French Open.

In the women's singles, the unseeded Saina, a former champion in French Open, went down fighting to Yvonne Li of Germany at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, losing 21-13, 17-21, 19-21 in an encounter that lasted a few seconds less than one hour.

In men's doubles, the World No.8 pair of Satwik and Chirag came back from a game down to win in three games, beating French siblings Cristo Popov and Toma Junior Popov, winning 19-21, 21-9, 21-13 in just over an hour on the court.

The Indian pair won 61 of the 104 rallies while the French duo had to be satisfied with 43 points. After losing a closely fought first game, the Indians dominated the second, won six consecutive points, and converted the first game point they claimed as they won the game 21-9. They steadily opened a gap from 9-8 and widened it to 15-10 and went on to win the game and match at 21-13. Agencies

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