The main draw is now in full flow today at the Hong Kong Open.
One of the pairs highlighted in our tournament preview was Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen, and they delivered. Their first round opponents were Chinese pair Han Cheng Kai and Zhou Hao Dong, who played in China last week, while the Danish pair opted to skip that tournament. A decision which proved to be a good one.
The eighth seeds Han and Zhou had the solution against the Danes at the Denmark Open last month, but now back in Asia, it was the Danes who were able to get the upper hand. Although it was a slow start, with the opening game never in doubt for Han and Zhou. It was very tight in the second game, with the turning point coming at 11-11, as Boe and Conrad-Petersen were able to surge quickly to 15-11. This moment did the damage and swung the match in their favour, as the Danes then looked very assured in the deciding game, winning the match overall 15-21, 21-17, 21-16.
They now play Russia’s Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov, who impressed against the Olympic silver medallists Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong in their opening round.
Pressure to get a result
In the women’s doubles, Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen defeated India’s top pair who rank six places higher, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki N Reddy in comfortable fashion. The supposed underdogs dispatched their opponents 21-13, 21-12 in thirty-six minutes. They now have a much tougher task against the very much in-form number eight seeds, Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong from Korea.
Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, who are currently the highest ranked Danish men’s doubles pair, would have seen the great result of their compatriots Boe and Conrad-Petersen and felt the pressure to also get a result against an in-form pair of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel. The Germans were coming off a great quarterfinal run in Fuzhou, China.
Today however, despite the match going to three games, it was well controlled by Astrup and Rasmussen. Lamsfuss and Seidel were at one point 18-9 up in the second game, yet only just held on to a 21-19 game win. The Danish eighth seeds used this momentum going into the final game and ultimately were victorious 21-14, 19-21, 21-12.
They now play Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Sooh Wooi Yik, who are still on a high from their semifinal run in China last week, beating Ahsan and Setiawan along the way.
For the full results and fixtures, click here.