Christina Pedersen and Kamilla Juhl were expected to be a Danish dark horse in the ladies’ doubles category. But the after just one match the brand new Danish couple is out of this year’s Denmark Open, as they were overpowered by a Japanese couple. Despite the home crowd’s cheering and high expectations, the Danes lost 17-21 12-21 to Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito, who are seeded 6 in the tournament.

-We did not play that good today. The Japanese were playing well and they made it difficult for us. We tried to play our best and keep our tactics but it just did not work today, says Christinna Pedersen

And the two girls have not been playing in the ladies’ doubles category for a while, as they are best known for being some of the top mixed doubles players in the world. Christinna Pedersen is best know as the reigning champion of Denmark Open from the last two years with her partner Joachim Fischer, and Kamilla Juhl is a former World Champion along with her partner Thomas Laybourn. And the two players will still keep the mixed category as their primary focus

-We want to try something new, but being top players in mixed doubles is still our main priority. Ladies doubles is number two, says Kamilla Juhl, who reveals that the two girls will be playing together in the next three Super Series tournaments before they decide whether to take the new partnership any further.

Japanese and English success

And Matsuo and Naito were not the only Japanese couple to make it through to the second round. Another Danish ladies’ doubles, Christina Andersen and Louise Hansen,  learned that the Japanese ladies are a force to be reckoned with as they were defeated 21-9 21-10 by Matsutomo and Takahashi in their first match.

In the second round the two couples will join two more fellow Japanese couples. As the top seeded pairs Kakiiwa/Fujii and Maeda/Suetsuna  will be awaiting today’s results and playing their first matches tomorrow.

Two English couples made sure that England will also be represented in the ladies’ doubles category tomorrow. Both Jenny Wallwork/Gabby White and Mariana Agathangelou/Heather Oliver both defeated their Danish opponents.

However, the home crowd can also look forward to seeing more from two Danish couples, who did make it through to the second round. Line Kruse and Mie Schjøtt-Christensen won their first match against an American couple as well as the young local couple Camilla Martens and Celine Juel, who beat a German couple.

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