Line Christophersen had to leave the EC tournament on Friday after losing to a player the Danes traditionally have an incredibly difficult time with
Kirsty Gilmour loves playing against Danes. Assuming…Photo: Dita Alangkara/AP/Ritzau Scanpix
She was seeded for a quarter-final, and a quarter-final was what happened to Line Christophersen at the EC in Saarbrücken, Germany, on Friday.
In two sets, she had to see Scottish Kirsty Gilmour be just a notch sharper and win 21-15, 21-17.
And thus the sixth-seeded Christophersen can be upset that she lost to Gilmour for the fourth time out of five.
However, the slump was not terribly sensational, because Danish players have a hard time with the 30-year-old Scot.
Danish players have tried against her 40 times in the past 11 years.
Line Christophersen is one of many Danes who have bad statistics against Kirsty Gilmour. Photo: Grzegorz Michalowski/EPA/Ritzau Scanpix
31 times it has ended in Danish disappointment. Apart from Carolina Marín, who has been dominant on the European scene for the past decade, it is completely unheard of that Danish players have developed such an inferiority complex towards one particular player.
No one has positive statistics
But that’s how things have turned out with Kirsty Gilmour.
Line Kjærsfeldt beat her last year. It was in the semi-finals of the Hylo Open. Before that, she had lost three in a row and also has to live with having lost the most times to the Scot.
Now retired Sandra-Maria Jensen is the only Dane who has won as many times as she has lost – namely one.
Seven other Danish women’s singles have negative statistics against her. Just look here:
- Line Christophersen (5 defeats in 6 games)
- Line Kjærsfeldt (8 defeats in 12 games)
- Mia Blichfeldt (3 defeats in 4 matches)
- Julie Dawall Jakobsen (2 defeats in 2 matches)
- Mette Poulsen (6 defeats in 6 games)
- Natalia Koch Rohde (3 defeats in 3 matches)
- Anna Thea Madsen (3 defeats in 4 matches)
- Sandra-Maria Jensen (1 defeat in 2 matches)
Mia Blichfeldt could have had the chance again in Saturday’s EC semi-final, as the draw meant that the two would run into each other if the seedings held otherwise.
They didn’t. Blichfeldt sensationally lost to France’s Rosy Oktavia Pancasari on Thursday, and she then lost her quarter-final to Neslihan Arin of Turkey.
In the second half of the tournament, Line Kjærsfeldt and Julie Dawall Jakobsen meet in the quarter-finals on Friday. However, the winner of that clash will in all likelihood face Carolina Marín in the semi-finals on Saturday.
2024-04-12 19:16:40
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