Highlights
- Sindhu lost the French Open Super 750 final 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to world No. 1 An Se Young in 61 minutes — her 11th defeat in 11 meetings with the Korean
- The first game was only the second Sindhu has ever taken off An Se Young, and she also led the deciding game 8-5 before the champion surged away
- An Se Young arrived on a 49-match winning streak and left with her fourth French Open title
- It was Sindhu’s second Super 750 final of 2026, after her Japan Open title in July — at 31, the former world champion is still reaching the last day of big events
Twenty minutes when the impossible looked on
There is a reason An Se Young is called the wall. The French Open women’s singles final on Sunday pitted India’s PV Sindhu, the world No. 11 and a two-time Olympic medallist, against a reigning Olympic and world champion who had not lost in months — and for one game, the underdog script held. Sindhu used her reach and attacking strokes to take the opening game 21-16 in 20 minutes at the Arena Grand Paris (The New Indian Express; The Tribune).
The detail matters, because of who was across the net. It was only the second time in her career that Sindhu had managed to take a game off the Korean, whom she has never beaten in 11 meetings — the previous instance came in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Badminton Asia Championships, where she again won the first game before An Se Young rallied (The Tribune). The game itself was a street fight: net battles from 4-4 to 7-7, one exchange ending with An Se Young pouncing on a shuttle and accidentally catching Sindhu on the face, and Sindhu pulling clear with an overhead cross-court smash before closing it out after the Korean saved two of her six game points (The New Indian Express).
Sindhu, in her own words
The 31-year-old knew exactly where the match had turned. Speaking after the final, she gave the fullest account of the defeat herself:
“I fought for every point, I could win the first game and I was happy about it. But the second game, it was equal until five all or 5-4. After that, she took a lead and then maintained the lead. Even in the third set, I should have maintained the lead from 8-5. But unfortunate that she converted that into 11-9. So that’s where I felt the difference was. But a lot of positives to take from this match. Going forward, I need to work on them.” (The New Indian Express)
She also explained the standard required simply to stay on court with the world No. 1: “When you’re playing with the top athletes, you have to be at your 100% every single point. I know it’s not going to be easy and you have to fight for every point. That’s what we were doing” (The Tribune).
How the wall rebuilt itself
The second game showed why An Se Young had arrived in the final without dropping a game all week, on a 49-match winning streak (India TV News). After staying level early, the Korean produced what The New Indian Express described as a run of nine of the next 10 points to lead 17-8; Sindhu saved three of the 12 game points against her, but the game went 21-11 (The New Indian Express).
The decider was the real heartbreak. Sindhu survived a 36-shot rally that ended with her going wide, then rebuilt to lead 8-5 — the exact moment she later identified as the one that got away. An Se Young levelled at 8-8, edged ahead at the interval, and won six straight points to open a 15-9 lead before sealing her fourth French Open title at the first of eight match points (The New Indian Express; The Tribune). The win extended the Korean’s winning streak to 50 matches (Indian Economic Observer).
How fans and the badminton world reacted
The rally quality drew admiration even from the sport’s official channels. Mid-match, the BWF’s account on X posted, “How on earth did that come back? 😳” about one of the final’s exchanges (Outlook India).
After the result, The Khel India posted on X: “SINDHU FINISHES RUNNER-UP AT FRENCH OPEN (BWF SUPER 750)… A fantastic run from the Indian shuttler! WELL PLAYED, CHAMP! 👏❤️” (SportsTiger).
Khel Now likewise noted that Sindhu “can keep her head high given her superb performance throughout” the tournament (Khel Now).
Why this defeat is not the story it first looks like
First, context flatters Sindhu, not An Se Young. The Korean is in the middle of one of the great seasons in badminton history — a 50-match winning streak is not a standard anyone else is being measured against. Sindhu did not lose to the field in Paris; she beat everyone else, including Japan’s Hina Akechi in a 73-minute semi-final, 21-10, 20-22, 21-16, and then took the dominant champion further than most players have managed all year (Deccan Herald).
Second, at 31, this is a second act, not a farewell tour. The final was Sindhu’s second BWF World Tour Super 750 final of the 2026 season, following her Japan Open title in July, and she was chasing her seventh World Tour title (The Tribune). Her run also marked the 10th time an Indian entry has reached the championship round of a World Tour event (Super 300 and above) outside India this season — a depth marker for Indian badminton, not just one player (The Tribune).
Third, the gap is now specific, and specific gaps can be trained. Sindhu’s own diagnosis was not “she is too good” — it was two passages of play: the mid-second-game surge and the 8-5 lead she failed to protect in the decider. Both are about sustaining attacking accuracy against an opponent who returns everything. That is a narrower problem than the 0-11 record suggests, and it is why her verdict on Paris was work, not despair: “a lot of positives to take from this match.”