ODENSE: PV Sindhu entered the quarterfinals of the BWF Denmark Open 2023, beating Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 18-21, 21-15, 21-13 on Thursday.
Having lost a close first game against the tournament’s seventh seed, Sindhu, the reigning Olympic bronze-medallist, fought back strongly in an hour and 11-minute match to take the next two games and book a place in the last-eight clash.
She will meet Thailand’s Supanida Katethong for a place in the semifinals after the latter beat India’s Aakarshi Kashyap 21-18, 21-8.
Sindhu snapped a 2-match losing streak to the higher-ranked shutter and extended her head-to-head record to 9-2.
In the first game, Sindhu went behind 6-12 but managed to pull the score close before letting the Indonesian shutter escape.
In the second game, blazing her way to a 13-4 lead in a commanding run of play. The Indonesian quickly scored eight straight games to tie the score at 14-14, but Sindhu went on the offensive and took advantage of Tunjung's long shot to earn six game points and pull ahead thanks to two flick serves.
After having returned from the Asian Games in Hangzhou without a medal. Sindhu reached the semi-final of the Arctic Open Super 500 tournament in Finland last week, and now reaches the quarters of the Denmark Open.
It was disappointment early in men's singles as Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth were shown the door early while the World No. 1 doubles pairing of Satwiksasiraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew from their first-round match on Tuesday.