PV Sindhu upset by Yvonne Li in opening round at Denmark Open Super 750
PV Sindhu was beaten 21-13, 23-25, 19-21 by Germany’s Yvonne Li in the first round of the Denmark Open Super 750 at SJF Bank Arena in Odense on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, exiting the tournament after a 65-minute contest.
The two-time Olympic medallist won the opening game but could not close out the match after Li, who entered the main draw from the reserves, produced a comeback. Sindhu had originally been drawn to face world No. 1 An Se-young before a series of withdrawals altered the bracket. The defeat eliminated the prospect of a Round of 16 meeting between Sindhu and fellow Indian Tanvi Sharma; Tanvi won her first match and will now face Li.
Sindhu took the first game 21-13 with apparent control, but Li raised her intensity in the second set. At 20-20 in that second game Sindhu had a chance to finish the match but failed to convert, and Li captured the next points to take the set 25-23 and force a decider.
The final game was tightly contested throughout. Sindhu led 12-7 at the interval, only for Li to respond with six consecutive points to level the scores. Sindhu then won four straight points from 15-15 to regain the lead, but Li produced another six-point run to close out the match 21-19.
The victory was Li’s first over Sindhu in four meetings. Sindhu’s early exit contrasted with other mixed results for India in Odense.
Lakshya Sen was eliminated in the opening round, losing 18-21, 21-13, 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen, with Chou, listed as world No. 6, regaining control in the decider to finish the match in just over an hour; the result followed Sen’s second-round exits at the 2026 Asian Games and the World Championships in New Delhi.
Kidambi Srikanth and Tanvi Sharma advanced to the Round of 16 for India. Srikanth, a former world No. 1 now ranked world No. 31, beat France’s Arnaud Merkle 22-20, 21-19 in 46 minutes and is scheduled to face seventh seed Alex Lanier next. Tanvi defeated Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira 21-17, 16-21, 21-19 in a 72-minute match and will meet Yvonne Li in the Round of 16 for a place in the quarter-finals.