A lot of the biggest stars in the world made their 2017 DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR debuts today and the crowd was ready for them!

A lot of great and exciting matches were on the today’s schedule as it was time for the first-round matches in both men and women’s singles and doubles. Many great champions stepped on court today in an attempt to make it through to the second round. Some of them succeeded and some did not.

In men’s singles last year’s champion from Thailand, Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, got one stepped closer to defending his title today. After a very long match against Ng Ka Long Angus from Hong Kong China Saensomboonsuk won 21-18, 15-21, 21-16 and the defending champion was glad to back in Denmark.

- I already feel happy in here and I Just keep progressing in my game, so I will take it step by step from here.

The Olympic silver medallist in women’s singles Pusarla Sindhu from India is one of the favourites who didn’t make it through today. She lost against world no. 10 Chen Yufei from China 17-21, 21-23 after a good performance by the Chinese

Click here to see the schedule of play for tomorrow at DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR!

In men’s doubles, the winners of this year’s Indonesian Open Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen from China played their way into the second round as they defeated Indonesian Mohammad Ahsan/Rian Saputro in an extremely spell-binding match. After saving four Indonesian game points the Chinese took the first game 25-23 before securing the win with 21-18 in the second game.

The Danish home court favourite, world no. one and World Champion, Viktor Axelsen took on Takuma Ueda from Japan. As they played thoughts like ”that’s not possible”, ”what a shot!” and ”how on earth did he just do that?!” went through the minds of the spectators as Axelsen obliterated his opponent. 

It only took the Dane 31 minutes to defeat Ueda 21-8, 21-11 and as he left the hall he left especially his younger fans amazed by his performance today.

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We also got two big surprises in men’s singles today. Firstly, the no. Four seeded Chinese Shi Yuqi was defeated in straight games by the European Champion Rajiv Ouseph from England 21-19, 21-13.

- I think I played well so I’m very happy. The first round is always tricky in a new hall and a new environment so I tried to start as quickly and confidently as possible. It was nice for me to get a good start, says Ouseph.

By the time it had gone from afternoon to evening the second surprise occurred as the Olympic Champion, Chen Long, was sent packing by Lee Hyun Il with a 21-19, 22-20 defeat.

Click here to see all of the today’s results from DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR!

The fight of the day was in women’s singles as the two superstars Saina Nehwal from India and Carolina Marin from Spain played a thrilling and intense match. In the end, Nehwal came out victorious as she won 22-20, 21-18.

Afterwards, the Indian star revealed that she hadn’t even dared to look at her draw further than the first-round clash with Marin.

- My focus now is on the next round, but I don’t know who I’m playing because I didn’t look any further than the first round, Nehwal laughs and continues.

 - I will go and get some good massage now and come back stronger tomorrow. Even though I won in straight games I spent a lot of energy in the match, she says.

On that note, we’re ready for tomorrow’s matches, and we’re looking forward to more excitement here in Odense. The doors open at 9 AM and we hope you’re joining us for all the fun at the day three of DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR!