Denmark Open: Sindhu and Lakshya Sen exit in first round

PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen exited the Denmark Open in the first round on Tuesday, while Kidambi Srikanth and Tanvi Sharma secured hard-fought singles victories to reach the last 16 of the Super 750 tournament.

Sindhu was beaten 21-13, 23-25, 19-21 by Germany’s Yvonne Li in a women’s singles contest that lasted one hour and five minutes at the SJF Bank Arena. Lakshya then lost 18-21, 21-13, 15-21 to third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in a men’s singles match lasting one hour and three minutes.

The contrasting results leave Srikanth and Tanvi carrying the Indian challenge into the next round after both were pushed across tightly contested opening matches.

Sindhu and Lakshya denied after three-game battles

Sindhu started strongly against Li, taking the opening game 21-13. The German responded in an extended second game, saving the contest at 25-23 to force a decider. Li then edged the third game 21-19 to complete the comeback and move through.

The result ended Sindhu’s run in Denmark despite another closely fought three-game match. The two-time Olympic medallist and former world champion had arrived with mixed recent results, having won the Japan Open Super 750 title in July before reaching the quarter-finals of the Arctic Open last week. Her Arctic Open campaign had ended with a three-game defeat to Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon.

Lakshya also took his opening-round match to three games but could not overturn Chou, the third seed. Chou claimed the first game 21-18 before Lakshya levelled the match with a 21-13 second-game win. Chou regained control in the deciding game, taking it 21-15 to seal the victory.

Both Sindhu’s and Lakshya’s matches were decided by fine margins across long contests, with each Indian player winning one game but falling short in the decider. Their first-round exits mean neither will feature in the tournament’s last 16.

Srikanth and Tanvi move into the last 16

Srikanth advanced after defeating France’s Arnaud Merkle 22-20, 21-19 in 46 minutes. The scoreline underlined the pressure in both games, but Srikanth held on in each to secure a straight-games result.

His reward is a pre-quarter-final meeting with seventh seed Alex Lanier of France. Srikanth has previous success at the Denmark Open, having won the title in 2017, and his opening victory gives him another opportunity to progress at the event.

Tanvi also needed three games to get through her women’s singles opener against Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira. She won 21-17 in the first game, lost the second 16-21, and recovered to take the decider 21-19. The match lasted one hour and 12 minutes, the longest of the four Indian singles matches detailed on Tuesday.

Tanvi will next face Li, who had earlier eliminated Sindhu. That pairing gives Tanvi a chance to build on a resilient opening-round performance against the player who came through one of the day’s other decisive three-game matches.

Srikanth and Tanvi’s progress ensures Indian representation remains in both singles draws heading into the last 16. Their wins also provided the positive counterpoint to opening-day defeats for Sindhu and Lakshya in demanding three-game contests.