History of Denmark Open goes long back when Danish players started making ripples in arena dominated by Chinese players. Danish players participated in the All England in 1935 and within three years the success started, however to have their own super-series they had to wait of more than 80 yrs. Now that Denmark Open is an yearly affair, players from across the world are making their presence felt and creating history on the court.
It was the day of finals and five very exciting and close matches between different nations. It was also after the Olympics that many of the players were trying their hands on court. Many players were Olympic Champions and many were trying to defeat them. The first match of the day was Women’s doubles between pairs Matsutomo-Takahashi from Japan and Korean Jung- Shin.
It was very tough match between world no. 1 & Olympic Champions Japanese players and the Koreans. The Japanese players started like Olympic champions but it was the courageous victory by Korean in the first set with 21-19, that surprised many. In the second set, Japanese controlled the game and won it by 21-11 margin. The match turned into third set and it went close though the Japanese players showed their skills to lift the Denmark Open title by 21-16 win in this set.
The surprise of the tournament was Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk from Thailand; neither the history books had his name registered nor he was known to anyone before the tournament. He kept surprising everyone in the tournament since beginning and reached the final of Denmark Open on his own and without any coach. He kept all the spectators in arena on their toes by giving tough fight to Son Wan Ho of Korea. It was pure happiness on the face of Saensomboonsuk when he won his first ever Super-Series Primer.
The highlight of the tournament was the mixed doubles match between Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen Vs Zheng/Chen from China. The Danish players were simply at their best in front of their home crowd to win the title with 21-13, 22-20. It was hard work since 2011 that kept the Danish hope alive and finally they finished on the podium. The net play and smashes by Danish players were excellent and landed in court to force Chinese players finish on second position.
The next match was men’s doubles final and thriller of the day. Olympic silver medalist Goh/Tan from Malaysia were up against Isara/Phuangphuapet from Thailand. In the first set, it felt like Goh/Tan are still tired from their Olympic match and didn’t want to play but later the crowd was spellbound by the efforts of the Malaysian players. They pulled out a superb victory over the Thai players with 14-21, 22-20,21-19 margin. It was the first Super-Series title won by the Malaysian players.
The last match of the day was between Yamaguchi from Japan and Tai from Chinese Taipei for women’s singles title. Yamaguchi was too tired to celebrate her victory when her two coaches joined her in the celebrations. It was a fighting win by Japanese for 19-21, 21-14,21-12. It was the great week with many exciting and close game.