Viktor retires, Antonsen, Lee Zii Jia out and Kento Momota narrowly escapes: French Open day 2 updates

Day 2 at the French Open saw all the top athletes taking to the court and also witnessed some major upsets of the tournament.

The Danish Open winner Viktor Axelsen retired from the match due to injury, the Singaporean world no.40 Loh Kean Yew stunned the All England Open winner Lee Zii Jia in straight games victory and world no.1 Kento Momota had a narrow escape against Kidambi Srikanth.

The men’s singles second seed had his dream run cut against Korea’s Heo Kwanghee just after winning the first point.

Viktor took to Instagram and expressed “After playing the Denmark Open final on Sunday, I've been trying to recover and catch up on a few minor injuries which have been causing me some pain the last few days. I'm disappointed as I've been looking forward to playing here in front of the amazing French crowd, but with such a hectic tournament schedule, I have no other choice than to listen to my body.”

The Japanese great Kento Momota had a close call against world no.15 Kidambi Srikanth. Momota who was in top form after a brilliant Denmark Open looked set to wrap the in straight games had a bit of a surprise from Srikanth who refused to give in when Momota had a couple of match points at 20-18 in the second game. The Indian who is a former French Open winner was well on his way to cause another upset when he held a 19-17 lead. Momota fought back and took the next four points and along with that the match at 21-18, 20-22 & 21-19.

Third seed Anders Antonsen and seventh seed Lee Zii Jia were the other biggest casualties of the day as both were beaten in straight games by their respective opponents. Lee was playing against Loh Kean Yew of Singapore and Antonsen was up against Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu. Both couldn’t recover from the first game losses and fell short of their best in the midway second game. Lee lost 24-22, 21-14 and Antonsen lost 21-19, 21-19.

In other main matches of the day, women’s no.2 seed Ratchanok Intanon who lost in the first round of the Denmark Open was in much better form as she cruised past Marie Batomene of France 21-13, 21-16.

The women’s singles third seed PV Sindhu had a very stress-free outing against Denmark’s Julie Dawall Jakobsen, winning the match 21-15, 21-18.

Danish Open finalists Akane Yamaguchi and An Seyoung were also in action yesterday.  An Seyoung beat local girl Leonice Huet 21-10, 21-9 with ease, and the Japanese top seed Yamaguchi beat Korean Kim Gaeun 21-19, 21-19 in closely fought two games.