Denmark’s badminton national team got off to a perfect start on Sunday at the Sudirman Cup, which is the WC for mixed teams.
In Suzhou, China, Denmark won over Singapore by taking a 3-0 lead in a key clash in the group.
China is favorite to win the group. As Egypt is considered the weakest team, it is expected that Denmark and Singapore will have to fight to advance to the quarter-finals via the group’s second place.
It looks set to be Denmark, who secured the opening victory by winning the first three games against Singapore.
The mixed doubles with Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje made sure to give Denmark a good start, as they set out to win 21-19, 21-18 over Terry Hee and Tan Wei Han.
The Danes were otherwise on their heels in both sets. In the first set they came back from 14-17, and in the second set 7-13 was turned into victory.
Then it was Viktor Axelsen’s turn, and the world’s best badminton player was in even greater difficulty against Loh Kean Yew, before he put Denmark ahead 2-0 in the match.
In the first set, Axelsen missed five set points after leading 20-16, and Loh Kean Yew instead grabbed the set 23-21.
The world number four was thus on his way to his third victory over Axelsen in a year and a half, but Loh Kean Yew did not succeed in following up on the victories at the WC in 2021 and the Danish Open last year.
Axelsen rallied and won the next set with 21-13, 21-16.
Then Mia Blichfeldt could secure the Danish victory in the women’s singles, and she did so with the numbers 21-10, 21-15 over Yeo Jia Min after being in control from start to finish.
Thus, the men’s doubles and women’s doubles had no significance for the overall result against Singapore.
Denmark will next be in action on Tuesday against Egypt, while China waits for Thursday.
Denmark has never won the Sudirman Cup. China have won the last two times and have triumphed at 12 of the last 14 tournaments held.
2023-05-14 13:17:37
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