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Copenhagen, Oct. 14 (IANS): Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth came out with a commanding performance as he registered a straight-games win over England's Toby Penty in his opening round match at the Denmark Open.
Srikanth, the former world number one, defeated Penty 21-12, 21-18 in 37 minutes at the Super 750 event, which has marked the resumption of international badminton after seven months. He will next face either fellow Indian Subhankar Dey or Canada's Jason Anthony Ho-Shue.
Lakshya Sen has already reached the pre-quarters with a straight-games win over Christo Popov on Tuesday. Sen, who held a 3-1 head to head record against Popov, had defeated the Frenchman 21-9, 21-15 in just 36 minutes to make it to the next round of the Super 750 event. He will face Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark for a place in the quarterfinals.
The Denmark Open has marked the resumption of the BWF calendar which has been on a halt since March following the outbreak of novel coronavirus.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) had earlier intended the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup team events to mark the restart of the badminton calendar, but the tournaments were cancelled after several countries pulled out due to safety concerns arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The BWF also cancelled the Denmark Masters, which was set to start two days after the end of the Denmark Open.