Saina Nehwal rallied to carve out a hard-fought opening win but PV Sindhu crashed out of the Denmark Open with a stunning loss to American Beiwen Zhang in the women's singles event, here on Tuesday. Saina defeated Hong Kong's Ngan Yi Cheung 20-22 21-17 24-22 in a draining clash that lasted 81 minutes.

However, third seed Sindhu lost 17-21 21-16 18-21 to Zhang in another tough opening encounter that lasted 56 minutes. Moving to the next round in the men's singles event was Sameer Verma, who fought past China's Shi Yuqi 21-17 21-18 in the 44 minutes.