PV Sindhu’s French Open dream ended in defeat in Paris on October 25. The Indian star lost the final 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea, the reigning Olympic champion, at the Arena Grand Paris.
Updated: October 26, 2026, 10:45 IST
Quick Read:
- Sindhu, world No. 11, lost the French Open final 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to world No. 1 An Se Young.
- It was An’s fourth French Open title, and her 11th win in 11 meetings against Sindhu.
- Sindhu, 31, reached her second Super 750 final of the season after beating Hina Akechi in the semifinal.
How the final played out
Sindhu started like she meant to win it. She took the first game 21-16, playing fast and attacking, and the Paris crowd saw the underdog take the lead against the world’s best player. For a set, the final looked open.
Then An took control. The Olympic champion won the second game 11-21, barely letting Sindhu settle. In badminton, a swing like that usually comes from one player cutting out errors and forcing the other to run more. An did both.
The decider went the same way. An won it 12-21, closing the match in three games. Sindhu fought through the rallies, but the world No. 1’s defence and court coverage gave her little room. The final score — 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 — tells the story in one line: a bright start, then An’s class.
An Se Young’s grip on the rivalry
Sunday’s result stretched An’s record against Sindhu to 11 wins in 11 meetings. Sindhu has never beaten the South Korean star. That is a hard record to carry into any match, and it shapes how every Sindhu-An game is watched.
But one detail from Paris deserves attention. The first game Sindhu won was only the second game she has ever taken off An across all 11 meetings. In other words, games against An are rare for Sindhu — and she took one in a final, against the world No. 1, at 31.
It does not change the result. It does change how the loss reads. This was not a player brushed aside from start to finish. For one game, Sindhu found a way past the best player in the world.
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Sindhu’s road to the final
Sindhu reached the final by beating Hina Akechi in the semifinal. That win put her into her second Super 750 final of the season. Super 750 events are among the top tier of the BWF World Tour — below only the Super 1000 events — so reaching two finals at that level in one season is a strong return.
Sindhu is 31, a two-time Olympic medallist with silver from Rio 2016 and bronze from Tokyo 2020. She also won the Japan Open in July this year. The French Open run adds to a season that has shown she can still reach the last stages of big events.
Her world ranking is No. 11. Rankings in badminton shift with each tournament, and a final at a Super 750 event earns big points. But the ranking also shows the gap she is chasing: An sits at No. 1, and the distance between 11 and 1 was visible in games two and three.
What Sindhu said after the match
After the final, Sindhu spoke like a player who was hurting but not beaten. “I fought for every point,” she said. The line fits the match: even in the games she lost heavily, the rallies were long and hard.
She also looked ahead. There is “a lot of room still there”, she said — room to improve, room to close the gap. At 31, with two Olympic medals already won, that is the voice of a player who still believes her best badminton is not finished.
It is worth noting what she did not say. She did not blame the draw, the hall or the schedule. She framed the loss as a gap to close, not an excuse to hide behind.
What comes next
The French Open is done, and An leaves Paris with her fourth title at this event. For Sindhu, the season continues, and the question now is whether the Paris run — a final, a game taken off An — becomes a turning point or just a good week.
The numbers she must change are clear. Eleven meetings, eleven losses. Two games taken in total. Those are the figures that stand between Sindhu and the very top of the women’s game right now.
Her next tournaments will tell whether Paris was a one-off. But one fact from October 25 is fixed: in a French Open final, against the world No. 1, PV Sindhu won a game that almost no one wins off An Se Young.
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FAQ
What was the final score?
An Se Young beat PV Sindhu 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 in the French Open final at the Arena Grand Paris on October 25. Sindhu won the first game, then lost the next two.
Who is An Se Young?
An Se Young of South Korea is the world No. 1 and the reigning Olympic champion. She has now won the French Open four times, and she has beaten Sindhu in all 11 of their meetings.
What has Sindhu won before?
Sindhu is a two-time Olympic medallist — silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020 — and she won the Japan Open in July this year. She reached her second Super 750 final of the season in Paris.
