Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen faced disappointing exits from Denmark Open 2026 after losing their opening rounds in the tournament. While Sindhu suffered a 13-21, 25-23, 21-19 defeat
to Germany’s Yvonne Li, Sen was up against third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. He lost 18-21, 21-13, 15-21 in just an hour in the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament.
Notably, Sindhu was initially drawn against World No. 1 An Se-Young, faced the German due to several withdrawals. In the contest, Li was initially behind the Indian shuttler as the World No. 10 pocketed the opening game easily at SJF Bank Arena, Odense on Tuesday. However, she made a remarkable comeback and took the lead in Game 2. Sindhu also had a chance to wrap up the contest at 20-20 but her opponent kept her calm and forced a decider.
The last round was nothing less than a close tussle where the Indian built a lead twice. However, Li scored six consecutive points to take the pressure high, and though the game kept moving to and fro, Sindhu had to suffer a loss that marked the end of her campaign at the contest.
The two-time Olympic medallist was coming off a quarter-final exit in the previous week’s Arctic open. Her defeat has also put an end to hopes of an all-Indian clash in the next round as Tanvi Sharma, who dominated Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira, will now be up against Li in the next round.
🚨 A SHOCKER EXIT !!
P V SINDHU KNOCKED OUT IN R32 BY WR45 ⚠️
WR 10 Sindhu gets beaten by Yvonne Li 🇩🇪 21-13, 23-25, 19-21
So no Mentor vs Protege in R16. Tanvi will now face Yvonee Li in R16 https://t.co/l73xLxNIWX
— SPORTS ARENA🇮🇳 (@SportsArena1234) October 13, 2026
Lakshya Sen knocked out of Denmark Open with early exit
Lakshya Sen was also knocked out of the tournament after a first-round defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen on Tuesday. He suffered an 18-21, 21-13, 15-21 defeat in a three-round contest that lasted a little over 60 minutes. Sen has had a disappointing year thus far. The World No. 14 earlier suffered a round of 32 exit from the Asian Games with a 12-21, 21-15, 14-21 loss to the former World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
Before that, he fell to World No. 92 Garret Tan of the United States with a 21-19, 19-21, 17-21 loss at the BWF World Championships in August this year. In Tuesday’s contest, Sen put up a spirited fight against his in-form rival, but it didn’t turn out to be enough and the shuttler fell, marking the end of his campaign.
Apart from him, former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth took down Arnaud Merkle of France in a lopsided game 22-20, 21-19 to advance to the next round.
