Saina, Sindhu look to sizzle at French Open
PARIS: India’s PV Sindhu will look to continue her form at the French Open Super Series, which will also see top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth leading the charge at the $275,000 event starting with the qualifiers on Tuesday.
Sindhu, who lost her maiden Super Series final at the Denmark Open to Li Xuerui, will start her campaign against Chinese Wang Shixian. World No. 1 Saina will also be in action after her second round exit at Odense. She will square up against reigning Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li of Canada.
In men’s singles, fifth seed Srikanth will face Tian Houwei of China, while H S Prannoy will meet third seed Lin Dan. Eighth seed Parupalli Kashyap will take on a qualifier in the first round.
In women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will play Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the first round.
In the qualifiers, India’s B Sai Praneeth will be up against Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei and two-time Dutch Open winner Ajay Jayaram will face local shuttler Thomas Rouxel.
PLATINI HITS BACK OVER FIFA PAYMENT ROW
PARIS: UEFA chief Michel Platini on Monday admitted he had no written contract for a $2.0million payment from FIFA president Sepp Blatter as his chances of replacing the Swiss veteran as head of the world body nosedived ahead of a key FIFA council meeting in Zurich on Tuesday.
In his first interview since being handed a 90-day suspension from all football-related activities by FIFA, the former star player for France and Juventus told Le Monde that, although he had nothing in writing, he had made a “man to man” agreement with Blatter over the contested remuneration.
Platini added that, as he understood it, under Swiss law “an oral contract is worth a written contract”.
SOOD BROTHERS UPSET DEVVARMAN-MARQUIS BANGALORE: Sood brothers — Chandril and Lakshit — stunned India’s Davis cupper Somdev Devvarman and his partner Christopher Marquis in men’s doubles, while Indian qualifier Prajnesh Gunneswaran also posted an upset win in singles on day one of $50,000 AirAsia Open on Monday.
While Somdev and Marquis lost 6-7 6-7 to Sood brothers in the first round, former Olympian and Davis cupper Vishnu Vardhan and Sumit Nagal outwitted Czech-Russian pair of Michal Konecny and Alexander Kudryavtsev to storm into the last eight here at the KSLTA Courts.
COE PROMISES $22M TO NATIONAL FEDERATIONS MONACO: Track and field’s governing body says it will provide $22 million over a four-year period to its national federations.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe says each national federation will receive $25,000 a year as part of the “IAAF Olympic Athletics Dividend.”