Sindhu in French Open semis; Lakshya exits

India's double Olympics medallist P V Sindhu continued her impressive run at the French Open badminton tournament, sailing into the women's singles semi-finals with a straight-game win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan, in Paris, on Friday.

Sindhu, seeded third, scripted a convincing 21-14, 21-14 win over eighth seeded in 38 minutes to extend her head-to-head record against the Thai to 14-1.

The 26-year-old from Hyderabad had beaten Busanan at the Denmark Open also last week.

The reigning World champion had defeated Denmark's Line Christophersen, ranked 24th, 21-19, 21-9 late Thursday night to enter the quarters.

The world No. 7 will now cross swords with Japan's world No. 15 Sayaka Takahashi in the last four on Saturday.

However, young Lakshya Sen's fine run ended in the men's singles quarter-finals. He lost 17-21, 15-21 to Korea's Heo Kwanghee in 43 minutes.

The 20-year-old from Almora had notched a straight game win over Singapore's Loh Kean Yew to grab a place in the last eight.

The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also couldn't cross the quarter-final hurdle, losing 21-18, 18-21, 17-21 to the fourth seeded Malaysian combine of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.

On Thursday, Satwik and Chirag beat M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila 15-21, 21-10, 21-19 in an all-Indian clash to reach the quarter-finals.

It was a clinical display by Sindhu in the quarterfinals as she zoomed to a 5-1 lead initially before moving to 11-6 at the break.

She continued in the same vein after the interval, racing to 18-7 to eventually pocket the opening game comfortably.

The second game turned out to be a close battle. However, Sindhu broke off at 8-8 to grab a two-point advantage at the interval.

The Indians ace once again stepped up the momentum after the break to go to 16-10 and 20-12. Busanan saved two match-points before Sindhu sealed the contest.

Sourabh Verma bowed out of the competition after losing 12-21, 9-21 to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the second round of the men’s singles.