French Open Badminton: Former Indian champions of the tournament 

The French Open, which is an annual October event held in Stade Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, has made itself an inseparable part of the badminton calendar. Starting off way back in 1909, the tournament suffered several interruptions only to come back better than ever before.

With the 2018 French Open offering a lump some $750,000, the Super 750 tournament has grown from strength to strength. The likes of P.V. Sindhu, Srikanth Kidambi and Saina Nehwal have already initiated their campaign for the 23rd to 28th October event and things look bright for Team India.

India has always been a nation who has been consistent in producing promising stars for badminton. The 2017 edition of the French Open proved to be a particularly successful outing for Indians as 25-year-old Srikanth Kidambi became the fifth person to lift the French Open trophy from this country, after a fourteen-edition drought.

The French Open has proved to be particularly difficult for the Indians to master. Through repeated tries, the title has slipped the hands of the Indians and continued to be elusive.

This Super 750 event, hosted by the Federation Francaise de badminton (FFBaD), has been attracting budding players from all over the world ever since it got promoted to being a major event in the badminton calendar. The end-October event serves as the perfect platform for young and promising players to make a place for themselves in the circuit.

Indians have been greeted with success on a few occasions. With the most number of wins stemming from men's singles, women's singles and men's doubles, it has been a dry spell in the women's doubles and mixed doubles sections of the tournament so far.

Here's having a look at the past Indian winners of the tournament category-wise:

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Men's Singles

Kidambi Srikanth won the 2017 French Open

India has tasted the most number of victories at the French Open in the category of Men's Singles. The first Indian to make a conquest in the French territories was Kerala-born Vimal Kumar, when he won the title for two consecutive years in 1983-84. Other than being an Olympian himself, Vimal Kumar has served as the Chief National Coach of India.

Kumar has also moulded the likes of Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap, having trained them for several years. He dons the directorial hat at the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore now and is quite a renowned name in Indian badminton.

It was again in 2000 that Siddharth Jain shot into fame when he won the coveted French Open title. Without any surprise this time, 2001 saw another Indian taking the title and defending the country's name on the French shores. This time it was the Allahabad-born Olympian Abhinn Shyam Gupta who scripted history by winning the title in 2001.

What followed was a long drought of titles for the nation which met its end with Srikanth Kidambi's win last year over Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in straight games to gift India its fifth title in Men's Singles category.

Women's Singles

Aparna Popat is the lone Indian woman to win the French Open in 1998

In the last decade, India has produced two of the brightest female badminton players in its history with P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal conquering the world of badminton. Yet the French Open has continued to elude the grasp of both of them and other promising players for some obstacle or the other.

However, both Nehwal and Sindhu have been in spectacular form this year performing extremely well in the Commonwealth Games and the recently-concluded Asian Games, and are therefore strong contenders for this year's French Open title.

India has only won once in women's singles when Arjuna Awardee Aparna Popat became the lone Indian woman to bag the French Open two decades ago in 1998. Ever since then, the title has escaped the reach of the Indian women shuttlers.

Men's Doubles

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (left) and Chirag Shetty reached the quarters last year. Can they win the title?

The first time an Indian bagged a doubles title at this tournament goes back several decades to 1956 when A.C.Bahree paired up with C.L Yap of Malaysia to win the maiden title in this category.

The French Open remained a challenge for the Indian shuttlers until 1983 when the duo of Partho Ganguli and Vikram Singh took over and won the title. Ever since then, many fantastic pair-ups have taken place but none of them have been able to lay their hands on the elusive French Open title.

India has not made a major impact in the Women's Doubles or the Mixed Doubles categories of this tournament either. But given the rate at which the Indian shuttlers are advancing, they are sure to lock in victories over these two unconquered categories soon enough and emerge successful in etching history in the pages of French Open again.