French Open: Ashmita Chaliha stuns world No.2 Yamaguchi, joins PV Sindhu in quarters

Ashmita Chaliha produced an outstanding performance of the day to upset world number two Akane Yamaguchi, who joined two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu in the women’s singles quarter-finals at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Thursday.

The unseeded Indian beat third seeded Japan 21-19, 21-18 in 37 minutes to secure one of the biggest victories of her career and her first victory against a top-five opponent.\

Sindhu followed it up with a 21-12, 21-16 composite win over Japan’s Riko Gunji in a match that lasted 44 minutes.

Ashmita’s triumph carried significance beyond her progress in the Super 750 tournament. It was the first time in more than four years that an Indian women’s singles shuttler had beaten a top-two ranked player in the world. The previous instance was in May 2022 when Sindhu defeated Yamaguchi at the Thailand Open.

The result also marked a rare double for Indian women’s badminton in singles. For the first time since 2019, two Indian players reached the quarterfinals of a Super 750 tournament. Saina Nehwal and Sindhu reached the French Open that year when they both advanced to the round of 16.

For Ashmita, the win adds another milestone to what has been a breakthrough on the international circuit. The 26-year-old from Assam claimed her first BWF World Tour title at the Korea Masters Super 300 in August, defeating China’s Han Qian Xi 14-21, 21-14, 21-14 in the final.

#FrenchOpen2026 Ashmita Chaliha beats Akane Yamaguchi! Ms. I’m pretty sure that would be the biggest match win of Ashmita’s career. In fact, she beat a top-5 player for the first time when she took down the newly promoted world number two Yamaguchi in straight games. It’s hard to tell from this video stream, but it’s quite evident that Ashmita is emotional at the end. It clearly means a lot to her as she posts another strong result in a year where she seems to have found her faith again. Akane quite possibly had an absolute marathon final against An Seyoung last week (and even ASY looked like she was feeling the pace against Tanvi at times today because of how grueling Sunday’s final in Denmark was). But take nothing away from Ashmita who will be, should be, absolutely delighted with this result.— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) October 22, 2026

The triumph followed a testing period in her career when a knee injury suffered in Korea 2024 threatened her progress. Her return to form has since gathered momentum, with encouraging performances across the tour.

The win over Yamaguchi is another indicator of that progress. Against one of the world’s leading players, Ashmita held her nerve to close out a straight-sets victory to book her place in the last eight of the prestigious tournament.

Meanwhile, Sindhu continued her campaign with a straight-sets win over Gunji. The former world champion lasted a a grueling opening round match against Thailand’s Supanida Katethongeventually prevailing 21-14, 8-21, 23-21. She was more confident against Gunji, controlling the match to set up a quarter-final alongside her compatriot.

Earlier, two other Indian singles had opposite fortunes. Tanvi Sharma went down 11-21, 14-21 to world number one and top seed An Se Young of South Korea in 37 minutes. Meanwhile, Ayush Shetty withdrew from his men’s singles second-round match against Japan’s sixth seed Kodai Naraoka while trailing 17-21, 6-11, with an undisclosed injury.

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