French Open 2019: PV Sindhu eases into pre-quarters; Subhankar Dey beats former World No. 3

PV Sindhu beat Canada's Michelli Li 21-15, 21-13 in the women's singles first round of the French Open Super 750 tournament in Paris on Tuesday and moved into the pre-quarters.

Sindhu started the match on the backfoot with the Canadian going up 5-2 early on. However, the lanky Indian shuttler picked up the pace gradually and soon reduced the deficit to 6-7. From that point on, there was no stopping Sindhu, who surged to a 12-9 lead.

The World No. 8 from Canada tried to stage a fightback but she was no match to the reigning World Champion who went home to win the first game 21-15.

The second game, as well, proceeded in a similar fashion with Li forcing Sindhu to commit errors towards the start. But after the breather, Sindhu again upped her game and took a five-point lead at 15-10 and went on to take the second game 21-13. This was their eighth clash so far, with Sindhu winning five of the previous seven. 

Since her gold medal win at the World Championship, Sindhu's form had dipped a little bit. She crashed out in the first or second round in each of the three subsequent events, in China, Korea and Denmark. Last week, she lost to 17-year-old An Se Young in straight games in the second round of the Denmark Open. It remains to be

Subhankar beats former World No. 3 Tommy Sugiarto

Earlier in the day, Subhankar beat Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto, ranked 17th in the World, in the first round in three games. The clash was very closely fought with the Indonesian taking the lead after winning the first game. But, in the second game, Subhankar made a come back to beat his opponent, 25 ranks higher than him, 21-14.

Eventually, the 26-year-old shuttler from Kolkata wrapped up the match by winning the third 21-17, prevailing in a contest that lasted 78 minutes. This was Subhankar's third win over Sugiarto.

Among the other Indian shuttlers, Sameer Verma, Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal will get their campaign underway on Wednesday.