It was a tough day at the office on semifinal day for the last favorites in the tournament at DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR. Get an overview of the semifinals here.
Even though a lot of Danes have left the tournament, the crowd showed up and went through all emotions as a lot of the semifinals went into three games and the last home court heroes left the tournament.
In the men’s doubles there was an absolute national clash between Indonesians Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Ricky Karandasuwardi/Angga Pratama. The match was entertaining as expected and at the end it went fast for Gideon/Sukamuljo who won 21-18, 21-10.
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Another intense men’s doubles match was between Danish Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen. The number 1 seed met Chinese number 5 seed Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan. The pairs have met each other two times before today, with one win for each, and it was destined to be a tough match for both pairs. After three games the Chinese could advance to the final with the score 21-18, 18-21, 21-13.
- They were better than we were today, I could in principle have stepped up and then maybe we could have won. They play well today, they play very flawless and they get an annoying, for us, start in the third. That is what decides a lot of it today, said Carsten Mogensen after the defeat.
As Kidambi Srikanth took a magnificent win yesterday against Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles yesterday, he had another challenge coming up today facing number 15 in the world Wong Wing Ki Vincent. The gentlemen played a close match but in the end Srikanth moved on after the score was 21-18, 21-17.
In another men’s singles an upset was created in an all-Korean clash. First seed Son Wan Ho met last year’s semifinalist Lee Hyun Ill and Lee has beaten a lot of favorites in the tournament including Chen Long. This match was no different. Both fought hard but after one and a half hour Lee could advance to the final with the score 23-25, 21-18, 21-17.
- I always try to enjoy every match and do my best and that is the main reason I won this match, said Lee Hyun Ill after the win.
Watch the interview with Lee Hyun Ill right here
We won’t get a repeat of last year’s final in the women’s singles as number one in the world Tai Tzu Ying faced the Thai Ratchanok Intanon in the semifinal. Ratchanok was able to win clash number 16 between the two with the score 21-14, 20-22, 21-14 and will play Akane Yamaguchi tomorrow.
Also in the mixed double we witnessed an upset as the third seed and current Olympic and World champions Liliyana Natsir/Tontowi Ahmad was run over by Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet from Hong Kong China. They won 21-16, 21-18 and advance to the final against Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen.
We look forward to the finals on Sunday and hope for well-played matches. The doors will open at 11 AM.
See all the results from the semifinals right here