India’s campaign in the Badminton World Championships got off to a poor start as the pair of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the opening round of the mixed doubles event here on Monday.
Tarun and Ashwini went down 16-21, 25-27 against the World No 16 Danish pair of Anders Kristiansen and Julie Houmann in a contest that lasted 46 minutes.
The World No 39 Indian duo lost the first game tamely but fought back in the second, which was not enough to prevail over their rivals at the Ballerup Super Arena.
However, Ashwini along with her women’s doubles partner Jwala Gutta, got a walkover in their opener to make the second round after England’s Heather Olver and Kate Robertshaw withdrew from the tournament.
In a men’s doubles match, Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar defeated Yun Lung Chan and Chun Hei Lee of Hong Kong 21-19, 16-21, 22-20 to enter the second round.
