Badminton
French Open 2025: Satwik-Chirag exit, Unnati Hooda progresses
World No. 35 Unnati fought back to advance, while other Indians had tough outings.
Unnati Hooda led Haryana to women's team title at National Inter-State Team Championships. (File photo)
India’s Unnati Hooda recovered from a set down to emerge victorious in the opening round of the French Open 2025, a BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament, on Wednesday.
Unnati, fresh from her World Junior Championships quarterfinal, defeated world no. 39 Karupathevan Letshanaa of Malaysia 11-21, 21-13, 21-16 in a contest that lasted a little over an hour.
Meanwhile, Anmol Kharb and Anupama Upadhyaya lost their respective women’s singles matches. Anmol lost to top seed An Se Young of Korea 15-21, 9-21, and Anupama lost her opening round match to fourth seed Han Yue of China 15-21, 11-21 in 34 minutes.
On the other hand, last week's semi-finalist pair of Satwaksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in first round to the Indonesian pair of Rahmat Hidayat and MR Ardianto, 18-21, 20-22.
Whereas, the duo of Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda faced a straight-game 9-21, 11-21 defeat to Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi in an all-Indian women's doubles clash.
In men’s singles, Ayush Shetty fought hard against Koki Watanabe of Japan, eventually conceding 19-21, 19-21 in 46 minutes.
