The Indian challenge ended in the opening round for its remaining contenders at the 2024 Korea Open Super 500 on Wednesday.

Women’s singles shuttlers Ashmita Chaliha, Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap all exited in the opening round after losing their respective matches.

Bansod won the opening game 21-18, but world No 18 Kjaersfeldt fought back to win the next two 21-15, 21-17 and knock out the Indian shuttler.

Chaliha was up against Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong and was soon blown away by the prowess of the world No 17 who needed 34 minutes to beat the India 21-8, 21-13.

Meanwhile, world No 39 Kashyap lost out to Denmark’s Line Christophersen by an identical 21-15, 21-15 scoreline.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Ayush Gupta and Sruti Swain too bowed out with a 7-21, 12-21 loss to local stars Ko Sung Hyun and Eom Hye Won.

These results come a day after the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda suffered an 18-21, 5-21 loss against a lower ranked Chinese Taipei pair of Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tsu.

Later in the day, Ashmita Chaliha will kickstart her women’s singles campaign, going up against Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.