Chennai: India’s husband-wife duo, women’s singles World No. 20 Saina Nehwal and men’s singles World No. 24 Parupalli Kashyap have pulled out of the USD 750,000 Denmark Open that scheduled to be held in Odense, Denmark, from October 13-18.
Both players made the announcement on Tuesday admitted concern over the surge of coronavirus cases in Europe.
“I withdrew from the Denmark Open. I am going to start the season from January 2021 with the Asian tour,” said Nehwal, the London Olympics bronze-medallist.
“I am not injured. It would make more sense if we could play three tournaments in Denmark. For now, I’ll just get ready for the Asian tour next January,” added Nehwal.
India will have no representative in the women’s singles event at Denmark Open after Nehwal’s withdrawal, as World champion PV Sindhu already decided to skip the tournament.
As for Kashyap, he too decided to pull out for a similar reason.
“I think it’s not worth taking the risk to go there and play only one tournament. It’s better to start the new season fresh with the Asian leg next January,” said Kashyap.
World No. 14 Kidambi Srikanth, World No. 27 Lakshya Sen, World No. 61 Ajay Jayaram, and World No. 46 Subhankar Dey are the only Indians who will compete in the Denmark Open.