It has been an eventful day in the men’s singles category starting sadly at noon with Peter Gade’s witdrawal. And with Gade out of the tournament former Olympian and world champion Taufik Hidayat is without comparison the biggest international profile in this year’s Denmark Open.

With lots of attention from the crowd, the Indonesian star got off to a good start in his first match in Odense Sports Park. Here he beat Emil Vind from Denmark, who made it through to the main tournament in yesterdays qualification. But  even though Taufik’s chances at winning the tournament have now increased dramatically, he was sad to see his biggest competition injured.

 -It is very sad with Peter’s back. I would have liked to play against him in the final.  I always like playing against Peter, no matter if I lose or win we always play great matches, Taufik says He is, however, happy to be back at Denmark Open after two years of absence from the Danish tournament.

Jan Ø. barely through
Another favourite who got the crowd going today was Danish Jan Ø. Jørgensen. Jan Ø., who is seeded for the semifinals, had a shaky start in today’s first round and needed all the help he could get from the audience. He was up against Ukrainian player Dmytro Zavadski, who is number 64 in the world. And even though Jan Ø. got a great start in the first set the match became more difficult for him later on. He lost the second set 18-21 and the third set was very close up until the end, where the Dane pulled away and closed the match 21-14.

-I was not focused enough and thought that I could do whatever I wanted. In the first set i was leading 11-0 and it was so sloppy of me not to close it earlier. And in the middle of third set I also got a bit shaky. Today it just wasn’t good enough, Jan Ø. Jørgensen says.

Tomorrow 16-year fellow Dane Viktor Axelsen awaits in the second round, where Jan Ø. hopes to get his game under control.

 -I look forward to playing against Viktor and hopefully I can prove that he is still behind me. I think it will be a great match and for the home crowd it can maybe be a bit of a compensation now that they don’t get to see Peter Gade play, Jan Ø. said after today’s match.