Indian badminton player PV Sindhu advanced to the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open 2023 women’s singles event after beating Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung at the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense on Thursday.
Two-time Olympic medallist and former world champion PV Sindhu, 12th in the badminton rankings, came from behind to beat Tunjung, the seventh-seed, 18-21, 21-15, 21-13 in her round of 16 match at the BWF Super 750 tournament.
The Indian badminton player, who made the semi-finals of the Arctic Open last week, had accounted for Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in the opening round at Odense on Tuesday.
PV Sindhu got off to a wobbly start and conceded the opening game to Tunjung without too much of a resistance. The Indian shuttler, however, recovered in the second game and raced to a 13-4 lead.
Tunjung, who beat Sindhu in the final of the Madrid Spain Masters earlier this year, however rallied to level up the scores at 14-all. Unperturbed, PV Sindhu responded with a cluster of six points of her own before forcing a deciding game.
In what turned out to be a roller-coaster of a third game, Sindhu found herself trailing 10-13 at one point but managed to win the next 11 points on the trot to close out the contest in minutes.
This was Sindhu’s ninth win over Tunjung in as many meetings.
In the quarters, PV Sindhu will face Thailand’s world No. 19 Supanida Katethong, who ousted Sindhu’s compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap in the round of 16. World No. 38, who upset Germany’s Yvonne Li in the opening round, lost 18-21, 8-21 to Katethong.
Aakarshi Kashyap’s exit makes PV Sindhu the last remaining Indian player at the Denmark Open 2023.
Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth had crashed out of the men’s singles event after losing their respective opening round matches.
Results at the Denmark Open will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.
