Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu secured a remarkable comeback to defeat Michelle Li of Canada in her first-round match at the French Open badminton tournament on Wednesday.
In a marathon match that lasted 80 minutes, Sindhu beat Michelle by 20-22, 22-20, 21-19 at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris.
This was Sindhu's first match on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour after she recovered from a knee injury that kept her out of action for four months last year. She made a comeback last month, securing the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Malaysia.
Sindhu lost the first game as Michelle pushed Sindhu to her limits. She was trailing by 6-13 in the second game, but made a comeback to set up and eventually win a closely-fought decider.
Sindhu will next play world number 10, USA's Beiwen Zhang in the round of 16. She last played Zhang in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last year, where the Indian registered a loss.
In the men's singles competition, Kidambi Srikanth moved to the pre-quarterfinals with a victory over Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien-chen by 21-15, 20-22, 21-8 in a well-fought match. This was his third win over Chou in seven matches.
(Input from ANI)
