PV Sindhu breezes past Zhang in Round One of French Open

Sindhu, seeded third, disposed off unseeded Zhang 21-17 21-8 in just 34 minutes to avenge her loss at the hands of the same opponent in the opening round of the Denmark Open, last week

India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu breezed into the second round of the women's singles event at French Open after crushing Beiwen Zhang in straight games for a revenge win, here on Tuesday. Sindhu, seeded third, disposed off unseeded Zhang 21-17 21-8 in just 34 minutes to avenge her loss at the hands of the same opponent in the opening round of the Denmark Open, last week.

By virtue of this win, Sindhu has managed to break her hat-trick of losses against the American and equalled the head-to-head record at 3-3. The agony of first round exit at Denmark Open still in her mind, Sindhu, however, started slowly as Zhang took a marginal lead. But the Indian rode on her aggressive approach to roar back to a 7-4 and then a 10-6 lead.

The American then stunned her fancied opponent to pocket five straight points to reclaim the lead at 11-10. It was neck-and-neck thereafter till 16 points before Sindhu seized the initiative and pocketed the first game 21-17. The second game too was a close affair initially as both the players were locked at 3-3 at one stage before world no. 3 Sindhu upped her game to take a 11-6 lead.

Zhang managed to garner two more points before Sindhu sealed the affair in quick time. The Rio Olympics silver medallist will next face the winner of first round match between Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong and Japan's Sayaka Sato. However, it was curtains for less-fancied Indian men's doubles pair of Arjun M R and Shlok Ramachandran as they lost 14-21 17-21 to Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yunchen in the opening round.

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