Denmark Open: Sindhu, Lakshya aim to regain form after Finland disappointment

Indian badminton stars P. V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will be eager to bounce back from a disappointing resumption to their season when they compete in the USD 850,000 Denmark Open Super 750, starting on Tuesday.

Both players found the going tough in the Arctic Open in Vantaa, Finland, last week where former world champion Sindhu suffered a first-round exit, while 2021 world bronze winner Sen bowed out in the second round.

At Arena Fyn in Odense, they will hope for better results as they lead India’s challenge in this prestigious tournament, the 13th event of the 2024 BWF World Tour.

Sen, who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, went down fighting to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen last week.

Here, the 23-year-old from Almora will face China’s Lu Guang Zu in his opening match – an opponent he is yet to meet in professional badminton.

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Should he advance, Sen might face Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in the second round, with reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand will, in all likelihood, be waiting for him in the quarterfinals.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, will need to quickly address the issues affecting her performance after a disappointing first-round loss to Canada’s Michelle Li, an opponent she had previously defeated 10 times.

Under the guidance of new coaches Anup Sridhar and Korea’s Lee Hyun-il, she will open against Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po and could potentially face China’s Han Yue in the second round if she progresses.

In addition to Sindhu, India will have several other competitors in women’s singles, including the in-form Malvika Bansod, Aakarshi Kashyap, and promising talent Unnati Hooda.

Bansod, who had reached the quarterfinals of China Open, will go up against Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh at first, while Kashyap faces Thailand’s Supanida Katethong.

Hooda, the 2022 Odisha Open winner, will compete against Lauren Lam from the USA.

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While there will be no Indian representation in men’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who had missed the Paris Olympics, will compete in the women’s doubles, taking on the fifth-seeded Malaysian duo of Pearly Tan and Thinnah Muralitharan.

The Panda sisters, Swetaparna and Rutaparna, will face off against Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tung of Chinese Taipei.

In mixed doubles, the husband-wife combination of B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy are set to face Canada’s Kevin Lee and Eliana Zhang, while Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath will take on Indonesia’s Rehan Kusharjanto and Lisa Kusumawati.