The Danish national coach, Lars Uhre, thinks that the draw turned out in no other way than it could. Every match is tough, he says
The draw for Yonex Denmark Open has been made, and there certainly are some exciting matches in prospect. If you look at draw from a Danish point of view, no Danes in the tournament has been favoured. But that is the circumstances you will have to adapt to, Lars Uhre thinks. No matches on this level are given from the start.
However, there are some parts of the draw that are straight up unfortunate. Especially in the men's singles, where Viktor Axelsen is set to face Lee Chong Wei for the second time in a row at a Super Series tournament.
- It's really bad luck for Viktor. He's now met him to times in a row, and before that he met Chen Long in his second round. Hopefully he can profit of playing against him away from Asia, and use the advantage of playing at home to something good, Lars Uhre says about the young Dane's draw.
Men's doubles dynamite
Also in the men's doubles category, some Danes might get a hard time early in the tournament. Top seed Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe have the chance of meeting Christian Skovgaard/Mads Pieler Kolding in the second round, seeing that both pairs win their first match.
And then the Rasmus Bonde/Mads Conrad-Petersen constellation are in for it as well. In their first round, they will meet a yet unknown qualification pair, which might end up being either Danish Jonas Rasmussen/Joachim Fischer or Songphon Anugritayawon/Sudket Prapakamol from Thailand.
If they manage to win that match, they either face third seet Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia or Lee Yong Dae/Ko Sung Hyun of Korea. This draw examplifies what Lars Uhre thinks of the draw in general.
Tough all the way around
- It's a really interesting draw for the boys. And they have to play really well if they want to win, but on this level, everybody has to perform in order to win. No draws are easy, so in order to do well, we have to look at ourselves and our own abilities instead of on our circumstances.
- It's not about where our names are featured in the programme, but about how we play, he says.
In the first rounds in the men's singles category, Peter Gade faces Sourabh Varma of India, Jan Ø. Jørgensen faces Vladimir Ivanov of Russia, and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus faces Kenichi Tago of Japan. Tine Baun faces Chan Tsz Ka of Hong Kong in her first round.