Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy finish second at Denmark Masters

Lakshya Sen also lost his semi-final clash with France’s Christo Popov at the tournament.

Indian badminton players Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy have finished at the second position at the Denmark Masters International Challenge. The duo lost their women’s doubles final to top seeds Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn of Denmark. 

The Indian pair lost the match by a 21-15, 19-21, 14-21 scoreline, squandering a game advantage. The contest stretched to 59 minutes as it took three games to see who would emerge victorious. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy shot into a 11-7 lead in the first and secured it by 21-15.

However, playing at the home turf, the Danish duo showed their quality in the remaining two games. They won the second narrowly by 21-19 points which was the turning point of the match. After the shift in momentum, the third game saw the Danes win the set with a 21-14 score and became champions of the women’s doubles. 

Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy were the second seeds coming into the tournament. They gave a good account of themselves and shall take away a lot of positives from the contest. As for the rest of the Indian contingent, Lakshya Sen lost his semi-final clash with France’s Christo Popov. 

In more action in the men’s singles, Chirag Sen and Subhankar Dey lost their quarter-final matches and bowed out of the tournament. Elsewhere, Aakarshi Kashyap lost her women’s singles semi-final to fourth seed Dane Julie Dawall Jakobsen. 

Recently, India's PV Sindhu secured the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and became the first ever Indian athlete to win consecutive medals at the summer games. The overall performance of Indian shuttlers at the Denmark Masters International Challenge was exciting as well. The Indian badminton fraternity should take inspiration from PV Sindhu’s bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics and strive to achieve big themselves.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter, Instagram and join our community on Telegram.