Akane Yamaguchi
At 2018 Denmark Open, Nehwal was unseeded. She defeated Hongkonger Cheung Ngan Yi scoring 20–22, 21–17, 24–22 in her favour. She then defeated 2 tough Japanese opponents in successive rounds; beating Akane Yamaguchi &amp; Nozomi Okuhara. After an easy win against Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in semifinal, she met her arch-rival and the no.1 seed Tai Tzu-ying. In the past 16 meetings Tai had won 11 and Nehwal wanted to break that jinx but couldn't managed and went down by 13–21, 21–13, 6–21. Nehwal went into the finals of Syed Modi Badminton Super 300 tournament but lost to Han Yue of China.