Tattered Defences – Day 3: DANISA Denmark Open 2018
There will be new champions in four categories as all but one of last season’s winners tumbled out of the DANISA Denmark Open 2018 – Presented by VICTOR in today’s second round.
· GAYLE ALLEYNE
Shock reverberated around Odense Sports Park as the stellar players who savoured success a year ago failed to reach the quarter-finals of the Super 750 tournament; only Kidambi Srikanth still holding onto his Men’s Singles title…for now.
Ratchanok Intanon’s indifferent form continued to haunt her; the Women’s Singles title-holder perishing at the hands of Cai Yanyan (featured image). The young Chinese beat the Thai star 22-20 22-20. Meanwhile, Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan surrendered their Women’s Doubles crown in equally hard-fought circumstances. It was India’s Ashwini Ponnappa/N. Sikki Reddy who had the pleasure of uprooting the Korean queens, 18-21 22-20 21-18, in an hour.
In Men’s Doubles, Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan’s aspirations of a repeat victory evaporated versus their fast-rising Chinese team-mates, Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong. The young guns rebounded to oust the No.3 seeds 16-21 22-20 21-18. The storyline was the same in Mixed Doubles as Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet could not find the tenacity that took them to the top of the podium in 2017. The No.4 seeds from Hong