Odense: World No. 10 Zhang Beiwen of USA continued to make her mark on the international badminton when she secured her third straight win against World No. 3 PV Sindhu of India with a 21-17, 16-21, 21-18 victory in first round of the Super 750 Denmark Open World Tour competition at Odense Sports Park on Tuesday.
Zhang who extended her career meeting against Sindhu to 3-2 after Tuesday’s win, will face Line HøJmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the second round.
The big upsets did not stop with reigning World Champion and Rio Olympic gold medalist Carolina Marin of Spain became another high profile casualty in the first round.
Marin blew a 16-15 lead by allowing Mia Blichfeldt who won last week’s Dutch Open to reel off 4 consecutive points in the decider to eventually see off the Spaniard 21-19, 14-21, 21-19. Blichfeldt is set to take on Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the second round.
In mixed doubles, Malaysia’s No. 7 seeds Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai had to work hard for their 21-19, 19-21, 21-11 win over Mikkel Mikkelsen/Mai Surrow of Denmark.
Goh/Lai will play Lu Kai/Chen Lu of China in the next round.
The mixed doubles No. 6 sees Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia was trailing 4-8 in the decider, before scoring seven straight points to lead at 15-10 and to win the opening match 18-21, 21-19, 21-16 against Jacco Arends/Selena Piek of Netherlands.
Chan/Goh are set to battle the 2018 All England champions Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan next.
