Odense: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out of the Denmark Open after she was handed a straight game loss by Chen Yufei of China in the opening round of the Denmark Open.
Chen defeated the World Championship bronze medalist 17-21 and 21-23 in a 43-minute match as the Hyderabadi shuttler suffered her second consecutive early exit from a tournament after she had failed to make any progress after the second round of the Japan Open last month.
On the other hand, Saina Nehwal got the better of Olympic champion Carolina Marin 22-20, 21-18 in a hard-fought encounter. She would now compete either against Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand or Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia.
Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy also got off to good starts in the tournament but unfortunately, B Sai Praneeth had to face an early exit after losing 10-21, 15-21 to localite Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus. HS Prannoy, earlier won his match against local boy Emil Holst 21-18, 21-19 to register his third win over the Danish.
“It was a tough match. He is a tricky player and I have always played close matches against him. I was trying out few things in the second game but it didn’t work out. He got points and had a good lead. I was getting tired but I am happy to win. Hopefully I will be better tomorrow,” said Prannoy after the match.
Prannoy might face world no 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, next.
Srikanth defeated compatriot Subhankar Dey 21-17, 21-15 who represented the Greve team. He would now 2016 Australian Open runners-up face Jeon Hyok Jin of Korea.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy didn’t have a good time as he faced defeats in both the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles category.
He along with Ashwini Ponappa had reached the semi-finals of the Dutch Open last week but went down fighting to Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen 19-21, 17-21.
In the men’s doubles category, Satwik along with Chirag Shetty lost to the Korean duo of Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyoung 21-14, 18-21 and 17-21 in the first round.
Even the experienced duo of B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri could get through to the second round as they were defeated by the local team of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding in the men’s doubles category.
Japan Open semi-finalists Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also their lost their opening round fixture against the Irish duo of Sam Maghee and Chloe Maghee 17-21, 15-21.