After a day with qualifications and the first round of the mixed doubles yesterday the main tournament really begins today with the first round of both men and women’s singles and men and women’s doubles.

In todays’ first round the world number 12 in women’s singles Sayaka Sato from Japan played the young Dana Natalia Koch Rode, and what a match it turned out to be.

The Dane surprised the audience and secured a very close first set by winning 22-20 after being a set-point down. 

In the second set the world number 12 was back on track and forced the match into a deciding set by winning 21-16. The third set was close up until the interval. From here Sato stepped up and played at an even higher level. This gave her the victory as she won the third set 21-13.

Despite being defeated, the young Dane was very positive after the match

- I’m proud of my performance and now I want even more. We played three sets, but I wasn’t really close, because she was able to step up in the third set, and I wasn’t. I wanted to use this match to see how far away I am from the best in world, and to see what level I need to be able to play on for at least 50 minutes and not just 20.

Are you interested in todays’ results from Yonex Denmark Open presented by Danisa? Click here to see who’s through to the next round and to see the schedule for the rest of the day.

Also appearing in the first round of play was the Stoeva sisters from Bulgaria. They were facing the Indonesian pair Della Destiara Haris and Rosyita Eka Putri Sari. The sisters won the first set 21-12 almost without breaking a sweat, but the Indonesians made a great comeback and took the second set just as convincingly as they won 21-12.  

The deciding set got way more exciting than the first two, and in the end the Stoeva sisters managed to secure the victory with a 21-19 win.

If you want to follow the exciting actions in Odense, then click here to watch via livestream.

The number five seed in the men’s singles, Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei, also made his first appearance in Odense this morning as he faced Hu Yun from Hong Kong. The first set was extremely equal with the underdog from Hong Kong leading all way up until 20-18. At that point the favourite turned the match around by winning four consecutive point and thereby the set 22-20.

The second set never got as exciting as the first as Chou Tien Chen won 21-5 and made his way into the second round of the tournament.

In an all Danish match Søren Gavholt and Maiken Fruergaard faced Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen. Christiansen and Thygesen won 21-15, 21-16.

The play will continue here in Odense for rest of the day and throughout the week, and there will be a lot of international stars to watch. 

If you want to see a handful of Olympic champions and the Danish Thomas Cup champions, then click here to make sure that you get you ticket for Yonex Denmark Open presented by Danisa.

Later today we will see Lee Chong Wei, Carolina Marin, Fu Haifeng, Xu Chen, Zhang Nan and a lot of other great players make their first appearance at Yonex Denmark Open presented by Danisa

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