Badminton
Denmark Open 2023: PV Sindhu advances to quarters, defeats GM Tunjung
PV Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open 2023 after a hard-fought victory against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
PV Sindhu in action at the India Open 2023. (PritishRaj/TheBridge)
Star shuttler PV Sindhu registered a hard-fought victory over Indonesian rising star Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in a three-setter to advance to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open Super 750 in Odense on Thursday.
Former world champion Sindhu produced a gritty display to bounce back from a game down against the world number 7 Tunjung and defeated the Indonesian player 18-21, 21-15, 21-13 in a 71-minute pre-quarterfinals clash.
This was the second straight win for Sindhu against Tunjung this season. The Indian player defeated her Indonesian opponent at the Indonesia Open in June.
Sindhu, however, lost to Tunjung in the Madrid Spain Masters final and Malaysia Masters semifinal earlier this year.
Sindhu started poorly in the first game as Tunjung took an early lead of 11-5 at the first mid-game break. Although she made a comeback and took 13 points after the break, Tunjung did enough to win the first game 21-18.
Sindhu returned strongly in the second game and started dominating Tunjung with her powerful smashes. She raced away to a big lead of 13-4 before Tunjung started mounting a comeback.
Tunjung won eight consecutive points to make it 14-14 as Sindhu's net play got erratic.
However, Sindhu regained her touch and powered her way to win the second game 21-15 with a couple of flick serves and down-the-line smashes to fetch the winners.
After a few early exchanges in the deciding third game, Tunjung capitalised on Sindhu's errors to gain a big lead of 9-4. The Indian shuttler, however, was quick to make a comeback, grabbing points on multiple unforced errors from Tunjung.
Sindhu started dominating the proceeding after she drew level at 13-13 as Tunjung's backcourt coverage was error-prone. Sindhu raced to a lead of 18-13 all of a sudden.
Sindhu would soon seal the contest as Tunjung's return went wide. Sindhu will face Supanida Katethong of Thailand, who defeated Aakarshi Kashyap in straight games, in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Aakarshi, who stunned higher-ranked Yvonne Li in the first round, fought well in the first game against Katethong. She was even leading 11-8 at the mid-game break. Katethong, however, made a comeback to win the first game 21-18 and decimated Aakarshi 21-8 in the second to set up a quarterfinal clash against Sindhu.
