French Open- Kidambi Srikanth bows out in 2nd round vs Kento Momota, good news for India in mixed doubles

Kidambi Srikanth suffered a heartbreaking defeat against top seed Kento Momota to make a second round exit but India’s mixed doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament, in Paris on Wednesday.

The Rio quarterfinalist played his heart out to match the Japanese and also held two-point lead towards the end of the decider but ended up losing the men’s singles second round 18-21 22-20 21-19 in 79-minute match.

Srikanth had lost to Momota last week also at Denmark Open but he produced a much better display here and came agonisingly close to outwitting the two-time world champion only to fall short in the end.

Rankireddy and Ponappa, the world number 24 pair beat Denmark’s Mathias Thyrri and Mai Surrow 21-19 21-15 in 37 minutes. They are likely to face second seeded Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti next.