India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered their second consecutive first-round exit in as many weeks, bowing out of the men’s doubles at the French Open 2026 badminton tournament on Tuesday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, fifth seeds and sixth in the men’s doubles rankings, lost 21-19, 18-21, 21-13 to French siblings Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov at the Arena Grand Paris.
This was Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty’s first defeat in four meetings against the Popov brothers and their third successive opening round ouster after also bowing out early at the Denmark Open last week and from the Asian Games in Japan late last month.
Two-time French Open champions Satwik-Chirag fell behind early against the local favourites trailing 11-5 at the interval before mounting a late fightback to narrow the deficit to a point only to lose the opening game.
Satwik and Chirag responded strongly in the second game, establishing an 11-7 lead before holding off a late charge from the French pair to force a decider.
The Popov brothers, however, took control of the deciding game with an opening six-point burst and maintained their advantage to seal the win.
World Championships bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also exited in the opening round of the women’s doubles after losing 21-17, 21-18 against world No. 30 Lin Chih-Chun and Yang Chu-Yun of Chinese Taipei.
Tanvi Sharma was the first Indian badminton player to progress to the second round on the opening day of the BWF Super 750 tournament after beating compatriot Isharani Baruah in 32 minutes.
She beat Isharani Baruah 21-12, 21-12 and could face world No. 1, Olympic gold medallist and defending champion An Se-young of the Republic of Korea in the second round.
Ashmita Chaliha followed Tanvi Sharma in the women’s singles second round with a 21-18, 24-22 win over Han Qianxi of the People’s Republic of China.
India’s top singles players PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will begin their French Open campaigns on Wednesday.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/french-open-2026-badminton-india-day-1-report
