The Denmark Open Tournament began with Saina Nehwal kick starting the first round with a bang. The ace Indian shuttler defeated Olympic champion Carolina Marin from Spain in the women’s singles opening round.
In a hard fought battle Nehwal knocked Marin out with 22-20 and 21-18. In the next round, Saina will go up against Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol.
The men’s singles beginning was fruitful for Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy but B. Sai Praneeth struck out in the opening round.
After the match Prannoy said, “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.”
The single matches had a good start but the doubles were faced with defeat. The mixed doubles team Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 19-21 and 17-21 to Denmark’s combo Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen.
The Indian men’s doubles duo Satwik and Chirag Shetty failed to defeat Korea’s Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyoung.
Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy from the experienced men’s doubles team were also defeated by Denmark’s Mads Conrad Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding.
Another mixed doubles pair, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy failed to qualify for the next round after being defeated by Sam Magee and Chloe Magee from Ireland.
N. Sikki Reddy was disappointed with the service judgments after their loss. The badminton player vented out saying, “Today’s match has been played by the service umpire and the chair umpire… well done guys ????? #DenmarkOpen they just made me mentally down.”
She further added, “Whatever rules they make there is of no use… there should be review system in the services that will be the best for the players.”
