Kidambi Srikanth and Ayush Shetty in action at the india Open. (Express Archive | Abhinav Saha) France maximized their advantage of three players in the men’s singles Top 17, including two in Top 10, to defeat India 3-0 and make the Thomas Cup final on Saturday. In the absence of Lakshya Sen , rested due to an elbow impact injury, Ayush Shetty played first singles — and got ambushed by Christo Popov. Satwik and Chirag were resigned to wait, men’s doubles only possible as the fifth rubber given the Popov brothers play singles too. Ayush gets ambushed When India went down 0-1 with World No 4 Christo Popov on a rampage, the good news was that Ayush’s manner of being dominated was a known vulnerability. The bad news was it has been the same issue costing him matches for six months — against Lakshya Sen, Brian Yang, Alwi Farhan, Christo himself and Shi Yuqi in the BAC final at Ningbo, inflicting the same damage each time. It is a pattern now, not an aberration.…