Denmark Open 2023: PV Sindhu loses against Carolina Marin in semi-final round

ODENSE: Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu put up a tough fight but faced defeat in the semi-final match of the Denmark Open in Odense on Saturday.

In the semi-final match of the tournament, Sindhu faced Spain's Carolina Marin and lost the match by 2-1.

Sindhu had a disappointing start to the match and could not clinch a win in the first set. She lost the first set of the game by 21-18. However, the Indian made a comeback in the second set, where she won against the Spaniard by 19-21.

But in the final set, Marin dominated the set from the very first moment and did not give a chance to Sindhu to clinch a win. The Indian shuttler lost the final set by 21-7. The two-time Olympic medalist faced Thailand's Katethong in the quarter-final of the tournament, where both the shuttlers went toe to toe for every point.

PV Sindhu, a former world champion, picked up two points early in the game but conceded five straight before making a strong comeback to go up 11-8 into the mid-game break. Placed 12th in the badminton rankings, Sindhu was slightly better than her world No. 19 opponent post the interval, taking the first game in 21 minutes.

The second game was also equally contested between the two but it was Sindhu who, despite Katethong's sustained efforts, edged ahead 11-9 at the break. Sindhu, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist, then put her best foot forward to pocket the second game and move to the last four. The match lasted 46 minutes.

The quarter-final match between the two shuttlers was the sixth meeting between Sindhu and Katethong. Sindhu had defeated Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour and Indonesia's Gregoria Tunjung, the seventh seed, in the previous rounds.