Denmark Open: Indian top shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal crash out in first round

Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth suffered first-round defeats in Denmark Open on Wednesday. 

While Saina lost to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi 15-21 21-23 in the match that lasted 37 minutes, Srikanth lost to fourth seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark 14-21 18-21 in the match that lasted 43 minutes. 

World number 8 Saina has been going through a tough phase with fitness issues since claiming the Indonesia Masters in January. She had the same result at the China Open and Korea Open earlier this year.

World number 12 Takahashi had defeated Saina the last time they met at the Thailand Open in August.

As for Srikanth, who had skipped China and Korea Open due to a knee issue, had beaten Antonsen at the 2017 World Championships.

However, the Danish shuttler has come a long way since then. Currently ranked fourth, Antonsen won the Indonesia Masters, Barcelona Spain Masters, European Games and made it to the finals at Indonesia Open Super 1000 this year.

Indian shuttler Sameer Verma, was the first to cross the hurdle in the men’s singles when he beat Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 21-11 21-11 in 29 minutes to advance to the second round.

Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also made it to the second round with a 21-16 21-11 win over the German duo of Marvin Seidel and Linda Efler.

Another mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ranki and Ashwini Ponnappa did not take the court and conceded a walk over to the second-seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yi Lyu and Huang Dong Ping.