PV Sindhu advances to French Open 2026 semi-finals with straight-game win

PV Sindhu beat Chiu Pin-chian of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 21-14 at the Arena Grand Paris to reach the women's singles semi-finals of the French Open 2026 on Friday.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist and world No. 11, extended her winning record over world No. 17 Chiu in a match that lasted 39 minutes. The result continued Sindhu's strong run this season, taking her to the semi-finals of four BWF World Tour events; she previously reached the last four at the Malaysia Open in January and the Australian Open in June and won the Japan Open in July. Sindhu had also beaten Chiu at the Asian Games last month.

Sindhu dominated early, building a 6-point cushion to lead 11-5 at the interval in the opening game and maintaining control to close it out. The second game opened even more one-sided, with Sindhu racing to a 7-0 advantage that left Chiu little room to mount a comeback before Sindhu wrapped up the match.

Her victory keeps Sindhu as India's only remaining player in the BWF Super 750 tournament and sets up a semi-final against either Indonesia's Putri Kusuma Wardani or Japan's Hina Akechi. Wardani is noted in the draw as a world championships bronze medallist.

Ashmita Chaliha's run ended in the quarter-finals when she lost to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 10-21, 21-17, 21-16; Chaliha had produced the biggest win of her career in the previous round by beating three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi. Chaliha began the match strongly but Okuhara recovered to take the last two games and advance to the semi-finals.

India's other singles and doubles prospects also exited the tournament: Ayush Shetty was forced to retire hurt and Lakshya Sen withdrew before his opening-round match, while the men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and the women's pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were both eliminated in the first round.

Sindhu will next face either Putri Kusuma Wardani or Hina Akechi in Saturday's semi-final, and that fixture will determine whether India retains a presence in the latter stages of the French Open 2026.