India’s PV Sindhu and Aakarshi Kashyap, on Tuesday, made their way into the Round of 16 of the ongoing 2023 Denmark Open Super 750 at Odense.
While Kashyap got the better of Germany’s Yvonne Li, Sindhu, who is coming off a semi-final exit at the 2023 Arctic Open in Finland, defeated Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in their respective opening round matches of the tournament.
The double Olympic medallist started off well, winning the first game comfortably at 21-14. However, Gilmour soon hit back to take the second game 21-18 and force a decider.
The Indian though bounced back well as she raced to an 11-2 lead in the third game before wrapping it up 21-10 to advance to the pre-quarterfinals in 56 minutes.
Kashyap, on the other hand, emerged victorius against the higher-ranked Li in 55 minutes. The Indian came back from a game down to win 10-21, 22-20, 21-12 to script a wonderful turnaround.
This was Kashyap’s first win against the German in four outings.
Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen exit
Meanwhile, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen bowed out of contention in men’s singles after losing their respective Round of 32 matches.
While Srikanth went down 21-19, 10-21, 16-21 to China’s Weng Hong Yang, Sen lost 16-21, 18-21 in straight games to a much lower ranked Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
Earlier in the day, the Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty handed a walkover to their Malaysian opponents Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.