European nations are using this long pause in the tournament calendar to put in solid blocks of training. This includes trying out new pairings and testing them out in internal match play scenarios.
Wednesday to Friday this week, sparring matches took place at the National Elite Training Centre at Brøndby Hallen. These matches were streamed for fans, but for the players, this was an important few days during this challenging period, as men’s doubles player Frederik Søgaard stated.
- It is nice to finally be playing again. It has been a long period without a lot of practice and not playing the big matches. It is a cool initiative the coaches took to make match weeks. It is good for me and Mads (Kolding) as we are still a new pair.
Frederik Søgaard five years ago medalled in both the men’s and mixed doubles at the European Junior Championships in Lubin, Poland. He then went onto win the men’s doubles silver with Joel Eipe at the World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru. Søgaard will now be partnered with 2016 European Champion, Mads Kolding. Yesterday, they had a sparring match against Anders Skaarup and Jesper Toft. Before the match, Søgaard spoke about his expectations.
- Hopefully a lot of good rallies. We had a very good match yesterday with long rallies and a long match with three games, so I hope it will be the same today. But hopefully we can take the win today.
A little different
Irish and Scottish Open mixed doubles champions, Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje, were trying to build upon their partnership in sparring yesterday. They played the men’s doubles pairing of Joel Eipe and Emil Lauritzen. Naturally, the dynamic of the match will be a unique challenge. Talking about their preparations for such a match up, Christiansen says.
-We are preparing like it was any other mixed doubles match, we are not doing much different just because it is a men’s doubles pair. The match might be a little different as they are getting more shuttles back and are maybe a little more defensive than a regular mixed pair.
When asked before the match who are the favourites, Bøje responded.
-I think that is hard to say. It is also different for them to play against a mixed doubles pair, so maybe it can be harder for them to handle, but we also have to play faster than normal so it is not easy to say.