Kidambi Srikanth reaches second round; Treesa/Gayatri advance in Denmark Open

ODENSE: Former World Championship runner-up Kidambi Srikanth came back from a game deficit and advanced to the second round of the Denmark Open as did the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand.

Srikanth reached the Round of 16 by beating Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in three games at the Jyske Bank Arena here on Tuesday. Treesa and Gayatri defeated Alexandra Boje and Amalie Magelund of Denmark 21-15, 21-15 in just 35 minutes.

The 29-year-old Srikanth fought back strongly after losing the first game to overcome his 28-year-old opponent from Hong Kong 17-21, 21-15, 21-12 in a 56-minute encounter in the men's singles section of the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament.

Srikanth, ranked 11th in the BWF Rankings, will next take on seventh-seeded Loh Keon Yew of Singapore, the same player to whom he had lost in the final of the 2021 BWF World Championship in Huelva, Spain. The winner of that encounter will make it to the quarterfinals.

Loh Keon Yew defeated Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand 21-13, 22-20 in 42 minutes.

Tuesday's victory in the Round of 32 matches will be a continuation of their recent performances by the young Indian women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. The pair had won a bronze medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and have also done well on the BWF Tour.

The recent performances have put them a spot away from entering the top 30 of world rankings in the latest BWF World Rankings. The pair is currently placed 32nd in the latest BWF Rankings and will be looking to do well here to move further up in the rankings.

Meanwhile, other leading Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, H.S Prannoy, and Saina Nehwal will open their campaigns on Wednesday.

World No.8 Lakshya Sen is the highest-ranked Indian and will start his campaign against World No.6 and Olympic medallist Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the first round.

H.S Prannoy will need to get through the challenge of Zhao Jun Peng of China to move to the second round while Saina Nehwal, the lone Indian representative in the women's singles, takes on World No.30 Zhang Yi Man of China. IANS

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