The last shuttle on the World Tour was hit 213 days ago at the All England Open. Tomorrow badminton finally returns with the Denmark Open.
Players have descended on Odense in Denmark with a completely new playing environment awaiting them. They will be stepping into a bubble system imposed by BWF to minimise the spread of COVID-19, the pandemic that put a halt to the calendar for seven months.
Core tournament personnel including players, team entourage, technical officials, tournament doctors, technical support staff, plus BWF and Badminton Denmark officials were tested upon arrival over the weekend. We are ready for the first matches to be played tomorrow.
A decade ago
On Monday evening, the tournament organisers are due to discuss a redraw for the tournament, so matchups are as of yet still unknown. However, the listed names are enough to get us exciting for tomorrow.
In the men’s singles, despite the absence of last year’s semifinalist, Viktor Axelsen, the Danes have a strong group that will be raring to go on home soil. Anders Antonsen, semifinalist two years ago and childhood friend, Rasmus Gemke, who last year was the only player to take a game from title winner Kento Momota in the quarterfinal, will both be hoping to go at least a step further this time around.
The last Danish men’s singles champion, Jan Ø Jørgensen will also be there attempting to roll back the years and repeat his iconic victory one decade ago in 2010.
In the women’s singles, there are not many tournaments that Carolina Marin, the reigning Olympic Champion has not won yet, but the Denmark Open is actually one of them. Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying, who would have been on for a treble of titles, will be absent. Marin is therefore a front runner for the title, however, last year’s beaten finalist, Nozomi Okuhara will have something to say about that in Odense this week.
A dream reignited
In the doubles, the reigning European Champions in the men’s and women’s doubles, Kim Astrup/ Anders Rasmussen and Gabriela Stoeva/ Stefani Stoeva hold strong claims for the Denmark Open crown. For the men, with the Japanese pairs pulling out, the path is becoming clearer, with Russians Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov and German’s Marvin Seidel/ Mark Lamsfuss also rubbing their hands in anticipation. While the top three Japanese seeds in the women’s doubles remain.
The French pair of Emilie Lefel and Anne Tran is a pleasant surprise, following Lefel’s retirement announcement due to a long-term injury, scuppering her Olympic dream. It seems that with the extended pause in tournaments, Lefel has been able to recover and reignite her mission towards Tokyo.
In the mixed doubles, the two English pairs, who met at the 2019 European Games final, Marcus Ellis/ Lauren Smith and Chris Adcock/ Gabby Adcock, will be seeds number one and two, with a great opportunity to hit the ground running when they return to the court. The young up and coming Russian pair, Rodion Alimov/ Alina Davletova, who ended 2019 on a high, winning the Syed Modi International, will be hoping for a big run in Denmark.
To keep on eye on the draw and match schedule, click
here.