French Open SS 2017: Schedule of Indian contingent’s quarter-finals

The top Indian shuttlers led by the Denmark Open champion Srikanth Kidambi play the quarter-finals at the French Open Superseries on Friday, October, 27, 2017.

Here is all the information you need to know:

Tournament name: Yonex French Open

Category: World Superseries

Prize money: $325, 000

Venue: Stade Pierre de Coubertin, Paris

Round: Quarter-finals

Date: October 27, 2017

Time:

Men’s singles:

(8) Srikanth Kidambi vs (4) Shi Yuqi at approx. 11.15-11.30pm IST

HS Prannoy vs Jeon Hyeok Jin at approx. 10.45-11pm IST

Women’s singles:

(2) PV Sindhu vs Chen Yufei at 8.30pm IST

Men’s doubles:

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty vs (2) Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen at approx. 10.30pm IST

Channel: Star Sports 1/Star Sports 1 HD from 8.30pm IST

Live Streaming: hotstar.com

Preview:

(8) Srikanth Kidambi (WR #4) vs (4) Shi Yuqi (WR #6)

Head-to-head: Srikanth leads 2-0

Srikanth has never lost a match to the young Chinese, who is the defending champion. Not only that, the World No. 4 has not even conceded a single game to Shi Yuqi.

The Indian definitely has the advantage form-wise and head-to-head record-wise. Srikanth has looked unstoppable since his Denmark Open triumph and has not dropped a game so far. Until and unless tiredness kicks in, Srikanth should be a favourite to win this contest.

(2) PV Sindhu (WR #2) vs Chen Yufei (WR #10)

Head-to-head: Tied at 2-2

The two have played each other four times. Their first couple of matches went the distance while their last two matches finished in straight games. Sindhu ended up on the losing side in their most recent encounter at the Denmark Open last week.

The lanky Indian was error-prone in that match and even though, she did try to make a comeback in the second game, it was too late by then. Sindhu must have learned her lesson from it.

She looked very focussed during her second round match at the French Open yesterday. If she can maintain that and keep errors at bay, then she can definitely avenge her Denmark Open defeat.

HS Prannoy (WR #12) vs Jeon Hyeok Jin (WR #31)

Head-to-head: Jin leads 1-0

It was the Korean who came out on top in their only meeting that happened at the Canada Open in July. Prannoy squandered a one-game lead to lose the next two games in that match.

So, this is not exactly a very easy match-up for the Indian, even though he is the higher-ranked player here. The Kerala ace needs to ensure that he does not gift too many free points through errors, something that he did against Son Wan Ho at the Denmark Open a day after stunning Lee Chong Wei.

If Prannoy can produce his naturally aggressive game, he surely has a shot at reaching the last-four.