Denmark Open 2024: PV Sindhu Fights Back From Game Down to Seal Quarter-Final Berth

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PV Sindhu kept India's challenge alive in the Denmark Open 2024 with a comeback win over China's Han Yue to reach the women's singles quarter-finals on Thursday (October 17) at the Arena Fyn in Odense, Denmark.

Former world champion and current world no. 18, Sindhu, who dropped the first game, edged past the fourth seeded Chinese shuttler 18-21 21-12 21-16 in a second-round match that lasted 63 minutes.

This win marked the top India women's singles shuttler's first win over a top-10 player since defeating Han in the Malaysia Masters final in May. Sindhu, who is currently working with Anup Sridhar and Lee Hyun-il, is now 7-1 in her head-to-head record against Han.

A finalist in the 2015 edition, Sindhu, the lone surviving Indian in the fray, will next face Indonesia's Paris Olympic bronze medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in only her third quarterfinals this year.

The two-time Olympic medallist Indian, who returned to action for the first time since Paris Olympics, had reached the last eight in French Open and Spain Madrid Masters, apart from the finals in Malaysia on the BWF World Tour this year.

Earlier on Wednesday (October 16), all the Indians in fray bowed out, including the doubles teams of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Sikki Reddy-Sumeeth Reddy as well as youngsters Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Unnati Hooda, who competed in singles.

Jolly and Gopichand pair dropped an opeing game lead to fifth seeds Pearly Tan & Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia 21-19, 17-21, 15-21 in women's doubles, while Sikki and Sumeeth went down fighting to Canada's Kevin Lee & Eliana Zhang 22-20, 19-21, 20-22 in mixed doubles.

In men's singles, Sathish, who had earlier lost in the mixed doubles opener with Aadya Variyath, forced a decider after going down in the opening game of the singles contest, but in the end suffered a 15-21, 21-17, 20-22 loss to Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei.

In women's singles, Unnati joined Malvika Bansod and Akarshi Kashyap out the exit door in the first round after dropping the opening game lead to USA's Lauren Lam 15-21, 21-13, 18-21.

On the opening day in Odense, India's top men's singles shuttler Lakshya Sen suffered a defeat to China's Lu Guang Zu by a scoreline of 21-12, 19-21, 14-21, while the Panda sisters - Rutaparna and Swetaparna went down in straight games against Chinese Taipei's Chang Ching-hui and Yang Ching-tun in women's doubles.