French Open 2023: India's challenge ends as PV Sindhu retires with injury, Satwik-Chirag lose in round of 16

Satwik-Chirag are also set to lose their World No. 1 rank next week.

Indian representation at the BWF French Open 2023 came to an unfortunate conclusion on Thursday as PV Sindhu retired hurt while Satwik-Chirag faced defeat in their round of 16 fixtures. Sindhu had to retire mid-match due to a knee injury, and the defending champions, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, were beaten.

Sindhu, who this week re-entered the top 10 in BWF rankings, secured the opening game 21-18 against Thailand's Supanida Katethong. Unfortunately, during the second game, with the score tied at 1-1, the two-time Olympic medalist overextended herself, leading to a knee injury.

PV Sindhu called for a medical timeout and sought assistance from the tournament doctor. She also consulted her coach, Hafiz Hashim, twice and received a yellow card before making the tough decision to forfeit the match to Supanida Katethong, who advanced to the quarterfinals. This might the first time ever Sindhu has retired hurt mid-match in her illustrious career.

Meanwhile, third seeds, Satwik and Chirag, faced a surprising defeat against the Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in a closely fought round of 16 match, with scores of 23-25, 21-19, 19-21.

In a tightly contested first game, the Indian pair rallied from 13-18 down to reach 20-20, but the Indonesian duo ultimately secured the game 25-23. Satwik and Chirag then made an immediate comeback in the second game, winning it 21-19, but they couldn't maintain their momentum in the deciding game, conceding it 19-21 and exiting the tournament.

Horrendous amount of poor service errors was seen from the World No.1 duo. Satwik had a shoulder injury which led them to withdraw from Denmark Open 2023 in the previous week. They clearly looked rusty as the rotation between them wasn't in sync and lot of gaps were left for the opponents to take advantage of.

The second round exit also means Satwik-Chirag will lose their World No. 1 rank and will likely slip down to the third spot when the rankings are updated next week.