French Open Badminton: 5 players to look forward to

The European swing in badminton continues as the BWF World Tour has headed to Paris this week. Play will continue till October 28 at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, where the world's creme de la creme of badminton has descended at the French Open, a Super 750 level BWF event.

For this one week, fans of the sport will get to witness some thrilling action as the world's best shuttlers battle it out for glory in the French capital. Playing at the Denmark Open and the French Open in back-to-back weeks will surely test the fitness and stamina of the top shuttlers.

Will the champions in Odense repeat in Paris? Or shall we get to see new winners this week?

These are some questions that we have tried to answer as we gather five names who can make a statement at the French Open.

#1 PV Sindhu

PV Sindhu had a real cause of worry as she was drawn to face her nemesis, Beiwen Zhang in the first round of the French Open. The World No. 11 American has inflicted a lot of pain on Sindhu of late, notching up three consecutive wins over the Indian in just over a year.

One of those three-game wins came last week in Odense, where once again Sindhu failed to crack the Zhang code. But on Tuesday, it was an absolutely different Sindhu on the court as she began her French Open 2018 campaign.

Showing a lot of patience and poise, the Rio Olympic silver medallist first staved off a stiff resistance from Zhang in the first game. Then she totally ran away with the second game to eventually complete a dominating 21-17, 21-8 win.

Needless to say, this would boost Sindhu’s confidence level by several notches. The Pullela Gopichand protégé, a semi-finalist at the French Open last year, would be keen to make amends for her poor show in Denmark by going deeper this week.