Odense,: India had a bitter sweet day at Denmark Open as Saina Nehwal knocked out Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain but title-contender P V Sindhu suffered a straight game loss against Chinas Chen Yufei to crash out of the opening round, here.
Glasgow World Championship bronze medallist, Saina defeated two-time World champion Marin 22-20 21-18 in a hard- fought battle to avenge her Japan Open second round loss to the Spaniard. She will play either Thailands Nitchaon Jindapol or Russias Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the next round.
Late in the day, Sindhu, however, failed to break the rhythm of World No 10 Chen to go down fighting 17-21 21-23 in a 43-minute match. This is her second successive early loss as after clinching the Korea Open she had lost in the second round of Japan Open last month.
Earlier, Indian top shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy made positive starts but B Sai Praneeth bowed out in the opening round of mens singles competition.
World No 8 Srikanth overcame a spirited effort from compatriot qualifier Subhankar Dey 21-17-21-15 to set up a clash with Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin, the 2016 Australian Open runners-up. On the adjacent court, Praneeth failed to erase 11-7 and 11-8 deficits to go down 10-21 15-21 to local hope Hans- Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in a lop-sided contest. PTI
