Sindhu, Srikanth crash out in French Open quarters

Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the quarterfinals of the French Open after suffering straight-game defeats in their respective matches as India's campaign ended in the Singles events at the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament in Paris. Third seed Sindhu looked a pale shadow of herself as she lost 13-21 16-21 in 40 minutes against seventh seed He Bingjiao of China on Friday night. It was Sindhu's second consecutive loss at the hands of the Chinese shuttler this year after her straight-game defeat in Indonesia Open in July. By virtue of this win, Bingjiao extended her head-to-head record to 7-5 against the Indian. Earlier in the day, Saina Nehwal yet again failed to crack the code of top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, losing 20-22 11-21 in another quarterfinal encounter. To make matters worse for India, fifth seed Srikanth gave a good account of himself but eventually lost steam against top seed Kento Momota of Japan.