Saina beats Marin in Denmark Open
ODENSE: Saina Nehwal knocked out Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the opening round of women’s singles competition in the Denmark Open.
Saina defeated Marin 22-20, 21-18 in a hard-fought battle. She will play either Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol or Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the next round.
Other Indians Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy made positive starts to the tournament but B Sai Praneeth crashed out in the opening round of men’s singles.
World number eight Srikanth overcame a spirited challenge from compatriot qualifier Subhankar Dey, who played for Greve team at the Danish league this year, 21-17,-21-15 to set up a clash with Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin, the 2016 Australian Open runners-up.
On the adjacent court, Praneeth lost 10-21, 15-21 to HansKristian Solberg Vittinghus in a lop-sided contest.
Earlier, world number 15 Prannoy recovered from a 6-11, deficit in the second game to oust Denmark’s Emil Holst 21-18, 21-19. It was his third win over the Danish shuttler. The Indian is likely to play former World No. 1 Malaysian Lee Chong Wei on Thursday.
BULLS HOLD PIRATES
PUNE: Bengaluru BullsandPatna Pirates played out a hard-fought 29-29 draw in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 5. Monu Goyat scored 11 points for Patna Pirates whereas Rohit Kumar scored nine points for Bengaluru Bulls.