Six Danes have played in the second round of the Singapore Open 2019 on Thursday. Half of them have reached the quarterfinals that are getting underway tomorrow.
Such as on Wednesday, Mia Blichfedt was the first European playing in Singapore on Thursday. But after a 40-minutes' match, the 21-year-old had to accept a defeat against her strong opponent from India, Pusarla V Sindhu.
With Blichfeldt being knocked out in the round of the last 16, there is no European representation left in the Women’s Singles competition. Therefore, Europe has had more chances to advance to the quarterfinals in the Men’s Singles in Singapore.
Jan Ø Jørgensen, Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus and Viktor Axelsen were fighting for a spot in the next round of the Super 500 tournament.
Jørgensen and Vittinghus beaten by Asians
As the first of the three Danes, Jørgensen had to deal with a difficult task, he faced Chou Tien Chen (TPE). The eleventh duel in total ended with the sixth defeat in a row for Jørgensen (18-21, 10-21).
Another Dane, who was beaten in the second round at the Singapore Open, is Hans-Vittinghus. He lost in straight games to Kidambi Srikanth from India (12-21, 21-23).
Three-games win for Axelsen
After Lin Dan (CHN) retired in the first game of the first-round match, Viktor Axelsen advanced to the second round in Singapore.
Axelsen, who became the number three in the world this week, had to face Kantaphon Wangcharoen (THA). Both players have never played against each other before.
After 56-minutes’ fight, Axelsen had a reason to celebrate. He won in three games (21-14, 15-21, 21-12). Tomorrow, he will be facing Jonatan Christie (INA) in the quarterfinal.
The match tomorrow will be the re-edition from the Malaysia Open last week, where Axelsen lost to Christie in the quarterfinal.
Astrup/Rasmussen advance to the quarterfinal
Next to Axelsen, two more Danes advanced to the next round in Singapore. Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen won against a new pair from Singapore, that went through the qualification round.
After Astrup/Rasmussen won the first game straight (21-13), Loh Kean Hean and Danny Bawa Chrisnanta managed to come back with a fight in the second one. But in the end, the Danes took the game (22-20) and won.
Tomorrow, they will be facing Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen (CHN), the current number two in the world. The first quarterfinal matches will get underway at 1.00 PM (local time).
Find the line-up for the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open 2019 here