Odense (Denmark): Returning to action after a break, double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu easily beat Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit in straight games. PV Sindhu is playing her first tournament at the Denmark Open after winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Also advancing into the second round were Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma in the men’s section.
Sindhu, the reigning World Champion, took 30 minutes to get across Yigit, ranked 29th, 21-12 21-10 in her women’s singles opener. Sindhu will next face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan. She had skipped the Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup Final after the Tokyo Olympics.
Former champion Srikanth and Sameer also made winning starts at the USD 850,000 event. Srikanth, who had claimed the title in 2017, outsmarted compatriot B Sai Praneeth 21-14, 21-11 in 30 minutes. Sameer, ranked 28th, prevailed over Thailand’s World No 21 Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-17, 21-14 in a 42-minute clash. Srikanth will meet World No 1 and top seeded Japanese Kento Momota in the second round.
Indian men’s doubles players, however, had a mixed day in office. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the English pair of Callum Hemming and Steven Stallwood 23-21, 21-15 in their opener. Then MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila stunned England’s World No 17 pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 21-19, 21-15 to make a positive start to their campaign. However, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the opening round.
World No 7 Sindhu hardly broke any sweat during her opening contest against Yigit. The Indian was up 5-4 and then kept moving ahead to comfortably pocket the opening game. The second game was no different as Sindhu erased a 1-3 deficit to grab a 10-4 lead. Yigit made it 9-10 before the Indian held a two-point advantage at the break.
After the interval, it was a one-way traffic as Sindhu sealed the contest without much ado.
