For the fourth year in a row, it was Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen who came out on top in the mixed doubles category at the Yonex Copenhagen Masters. But they had to fight especially hard for it this year against Mads Pieler Kolding and Kamilla Rytter Juhl.
Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen were going for their fourth straight win at the Yonex Copenhagen Masters this year. Yesterday they more or less demolished Markis Kido and Pia Zebediah Bernadeth in their semifinal, and were looking really fit for yet another title claim here in Copenhagen.
Their opponents, Mads Pieler Kolding and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, however also looked quite sharp ahead of today's final, seeing that they played really well against Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam yesterday.
Either way, the crowd would most definitely be in for a treat in the third and last final of the day.
Looked like a straight game win
And it treat it was. Already from the beginning of the match both pairs displayed great skill and entertained the crowd with some long and well played rallies.
Fischer and Pedersen lead by two points at the interval in the first game, and ended up winning narrowly by 21-18 in the end.
The second game was an even closer affair. The pairs were leveled at 9-9, and it wasn't before the end of the game drew nearer that one of the them would pull away. It was Fischer and Pedersen who did that. They gained a 19-15 lead, and looked like they would win their fourth straight title in straight games.
But then Kolding and Juhl came back, practically out of the blue. They won the following six rallies and stole the game by 21-19 right in front of their opponents, sending the match into a third and deciding game.
Close call
Unsatisfied with the sudden turn of events, Fischer and Pedersen came rushing out to the third game and quickly won themselves a 5-0 lead, thinking an opening gap like that would do the trick for them.
But once again, Kolding and Juhl responded well and fought their way back in the game before the interval, where they only were behind by 8-11 and thus kept the match completely open.
It came out close, but eventually it was Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen who won the match. They misused one match point but claimed the victory and their fourth consecutive title in their second try by 21-18 after 72 minutes of play.
Exciting and nerve wrecking
Both Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen experienced the game as exciting and nerve wrecking.
- It was a really good match. It was full throttle all the way, and both sides performed extremely well. I think everybody in the hall thought it was a nice one, Joachim Fischer said efter the victory. Christinna Pedersen agreed:
- I think the audience had a lot of fun. In some situations it was less fun standing in there, when everything was as exciting, so I'm really glad we came out on top. Kamilla and Mads have been playing well at practice these days, so we knew we had to really be ready from the beginning if we wanted to win.