Diya Upreti, Jadetimes Staff
Diya Upreti is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Sports News
With both the ladies and men's doubles teams ending their respective careers at the Denmark Open Super 750 prematurely, Indian hopes of winning the tournaments have been dashed on grounds of early exits by both teams. Looking into the performances, fans may have mixed feelings about India's performance throughout the tournament.
The women's doubles saw India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand off to a good start, but they were tested against Malaysian duo Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah. They did win the first game 21-19 but did not create much of a lead at any stage and didn't recover when the Malaysians came back with a win in the next two games 21-17, 21-15 to seal a victory in an evenly contested match over almost an hour. An Indian pair historically hasn't fared too well against the fifth-seeded Malaysians and suffered yet another trying contest for the world number 21 pair in this match.
Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy also played in the mixed doubles event. They managed to take the first game 22-20 but suffered a very close defeat in the second and third games 19-21 and 24-22 against Canada's Kevin Lee and Eliana Zhang. The Indian pair showed grit but could not complete the match, which ultimately resulted in early knock out for them.
These losses put back Indian badminton at the Denmark Open, especially in the doubles department, but other Indian players are still playing there in the singles and their hopes are alive for a strong finish in the rest of the tournament. The doubles team will look forward to the next tournaments to redeem themselves and look forward to getting better.
Losses in both the doubles events mean that there is much to be achieved by Indian players when it comes to managing top-of-the-heap opposition on tour. Of course, Treesa and Gayatri were promising to make a mark from the junior ranks, but because of playing against teams who are veterans on the circuit, continuity remained elusive. Again, it was seen in the match against Malaysian duo, where they were unable to carry forward the strong start and momentum at crucial junctures began drifting away. Again, the close match in mixed doubles with Sumeeth and Sikki Reddy indicated that they push their opponents but still have vulnerabilities when it comes to taking crunch moments and, indeed, high-pressure moments.
In short, though it is sad for India to go out early in both women's and mixed doubles in the Denmark Open, it has also come out as a learning process for the teams. As the Indian doubles players wait for the next tournaments, they have a lot to work upon-they will have to build resilience, close matches, and take a lesson from the setbacks. Even though the hopes of the country were carried on by the singles players, there still is a lot of optimism left in India's overall performance in badminton this season.
