India’s ace badminton player Saina Nehwal defeated Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. Akane who is currently ranked world no.2 lost to Saina with a scoreline 21-15 21-17. Saina has now moved to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament held in Odense, Denmark.
This isn’t some ordinary victory for India, it was Saina’s first victory over the Japanese in the last four years. The last time Sania won over Akane was in 2014 at the China Open. It’s a relief win as the Indian shuttler lost to Yamaguchi 6 consecutive times before the Denmark Open!
Good News From Other Indian Players
Good news came in from other parts of the tournament as Sameer Verma gained another win against the Indonesian player Jonatan Christie with 23-21, 6-21, 22-20. The match went on for 70 minutes. Verma has been in his best form this year. He defeated world no. 2 Shi Yuqi in the first round and then defeated world no. 13, Christie, making his way up to the quarterfinals.
The duo shuttlers, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy made an excellent comeback against South Korean pair So He Lee and Seung Chan Shin with 18-21, 22-20, 21-18. Their game lasted for 61 minutes. Although the first game was in Korean’s side. Indian players made a comeback winning the second game. The Decider game was finally won with 21-18 and moved to the quarterfinals.
World no. 8, Kidambi Srikanth registered his win over Chinese shuttler Lin Dan with 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 in 1 hour 3 minutes. Kidambi will now face his fellow Indian, Sameer Verma in the quarters.
With PV Sindhu’s quick exit in the first round from the tournament, we still have potential players keeping India’s hopes high.
Saina Nehwal will now face Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the quarterfinals.
