French Open Badminton: Full schedule of India’s second round matches, telecast, date, start time and where to watch online

Day 3 of the French Open 2018 will be an exciting day for Indian badminton fans as the three Indian superstars -- Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, and Kidambi Srikanth -- will all be in action. All three of them will be hoping to enter the quarter-finals of this Super 750 tournament in Paris.

But Saina Nehwal’s second round match will command the lion’s share of attention for she faces the eighth seed and former world champion Nozomi Okuhara in an absolutely blockbuster encounter. It will be even more interesting to watch this match for they locked horns just a week earlier at the Denmark Open and the Indian emerged the winner there, having suffered a loss in their three previous clashes.

Nehwal has been showing some stunning resurgence ever since the European swing began. She made it very clear when she not only beat both Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi in Odense but even managed to take a game off the irrepressible World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final. Saina’s face-off with the feisty Okuhara will be a stern test of her fitness as well as her hunger and determination.

Will last week’s loss motivate the Japanese to get a win or can Saina extend her winning run over the World No. 7? All badminton aficionados will be eager to get the answer on Thursday.

Having finally stopped her losing streak to Beiwen Zhang, PV Sindhu will hope to make the most of this opportunity. She takes on Japan’s World No. 17 Sayaka Sato, against whom she has a 3-1 head-to-head record.

Defending men’s singles champion Kidambi Srikanth will have an uphill task at hand as he faces World No. 29 Lee Dong Keun of Korea. Srikanth might be the higher-ranked player in this clash but he has lost both his career meetings to Keun, one of which came at the Japan Open last month.

Here’s the complete schedule of Indian contingent on October 25, 2018:

Men’s singles

(5) Kidambi Srikanth vs Lee Dong Keun at approx 6.15pm

B Sai Praneeth vs Jonatan Christie at approx 11pm

Women’s singles

Saina Nehwal vs (8) Nozomi Okuhara at approx 7pm

(3) PV Sindhu vs Sayaka Sato at approx 9.30pm

Men’s doubles

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs He Jiting and Tan Qiang at approx 9pm

Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy vs (3) Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan at approx 10.20pm

Women’s doubles

Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram vs (4) Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu at approx 8.20pm

Here's everything you need to know about how to follow the French Open

Tournament name: Yonex French Open 2018

Location: Paris, France

Category: Super 750

Date: Thursday, October 25, 2018

Round: Second Round

Broadcast: Live telecast on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1 from 5.30pm IST

Livestream: Hotstar.com

Live updates: On Sportskeeda