Srikanth needed 35 minutes to get the better of local hope Vittinghus 21-16, 21-10 in the opening round of the USD 7,75,000 tournament. Srikanth has lost three of his four matches against Dan but the Chinese great is not the force he once was. The former world number one is now placed 14th in the international rankings.
7th seed Srikanth is through to Pre-QF with 21-16, 21-10 win over Hans Kristian Vittinghus in 1st round
— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) October 17, 2018
To face legend Lin Dan next in Pre-QF tomorrow #DenmarkOpenSuper750 pic.twitter.com/eXyKXCr70O
The last time Sriknath beat Dan was in 2014 at the China Open. If Srikanth manages to get past Dan and Sameer Verma overcomes Asian Games gold-medallist Jonathan Christie, it will be an all-Indian quarterfinal in the bottom half of the men's singles draw.
In the doubles competition, Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy moved to the second round of women's doubles with an easy 21-7, 21-11 win over the American team of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee. But it was curtains for Meghanna Jakkampudi and S Ram Poorvisha, who lost 17-21, 11-21 to the Swedish combination of Emma Karlsson and Johanna Magnusson.