Vintage PV Sindhu storms into French Open semi-finals to keep India’s campaign alive

PV Sindhu continued her impressive run at the 2026 French Open with a fine performance to book her place in the women’s singles semi-finals with a commanding straight-sets victory over Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Pin-chian on Friday.

The two-time Olympic medalist, currently ranked 11th in the world, needed just 39 minutes to defeat the world number 17 21-13, 21-14 at the Arena Grand Paris. The result extended Sindhu’s winning streak against Chiu, who she had also defeated at the Asian Games last month.

The Indian shuttler reached the semi-finals of four BWF World Tour events this year. Her last four appearances came at the Malaysia Open in January and the Australian Open in June before winning the Japan Open title in July.

Sindhu took control of Friday’s contest from the very beginning. She built a six-point cushion to lead 11-5 at the break in the opening game and hold the lead going into the match.

The second game proved equally one-sided, with Sindhu racing to a 7-0 lead, leaving little room for her opponent to recover. She closed out the match comfortably to book her place in the last four.

Sindhu will face either World Championship bronze medalist Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia or Hina Akechi of Japan in Saturday’s semi-finals.

With her win, Sindhu remains the only Indian competitor in the BWF Super 750. Ashmita Chaliha’s campaign ended in the quarterfinals after she suffered a three-game defeat against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara.

Chaliha, who scored the biggest win of her career by knocking out three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi in the previous round, started strongly against Okuhara. However, the Japanese shuttler recovered to secure a 10-21, 21-17, 21-16 win to advance to the semi-finals.

India’s men’s singles race ended earlier on Thursday when Ayush Shetty was forced to withdraw injured. Lakshya Sen withdrew before playing his opening round match.

The Indian contingent also endured early exits in the doubles. The men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty along with the women’s combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand bowed out in the first round.

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