The Denmark Open, which will be held at Odense from 14th to 19th October, hasn’t gone quite the way home fans would have liked.
Viktor Axelsen, who hails from Odense, is slated to meet defending champion Chen Long in the first round of men’s singles while the other Danish hopeful, Jan O Jorgensen could meet Olympic champion Lin Dan in the second round. The presence of other top players, such as Lee Chong Wei, Son Wan Ho, Kenichi Tago and Tommy Sugiarto, could also translate to some expected tense clashes.
Meanwhile, the 5 Chinese representatives in the main draw of the women’s singles, namely Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, defending champion Wang Yihan, Liu Xin and Han Li, means that the prospect of a non-Chinese winner is faint.
China have all their big guns in women’s doubles, including Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei, Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang, Luo Ying/Luo Yu and Ma Jin/Tang Yuanting and defending champions, Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua.
All eyes will also be on world champion, Carolina Marin following her winning campaign in Copenhagen, to see if the Spaniard can repeat that performance.
Defending champions Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeong Seong of Korea and Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia are seeded to meet in the men’s doubles final. Their meeting however, is anything but assured as world champions Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Choel and Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen are equally capable of going all the way to the title.
Of the five categories, Europe likely has the strongest chance in the mixed doubles category, with the presence of pairs like Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen, Germany’s Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels and England’s Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock.
Defending champions from China, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei will also be another pair to watch, having won the recent World Championships and Asian Games.
Other posts by Azlyn Balqis
