A young Dutch men’s team has entered the Thomas Cup 2020.

The young Dutch team began their Thomas & Uber Cup campaign on Sunday night facing India in their first match of the event.

The Dutch qualified for Thomas Cup after medalling at the 2020 European Men’s Team Championships, but for the event taking place in Denmark, the line-up is different from the team securing the medal in Liévin, France.

‘Super young team’
Mark Caljouw withdrew from the team just before departure due to recovery, and when looking at the Dutch squad, a lot of new young names appear. Men’s doubles profile, Ruben Jille, is by far the most experienced player of the team.

- We come into this tournament with a super young team. A lot of these guys have never seen these players in real life before, so it is a great experience for them to play here, Ruben Jille said.

- It is still also great experience for me, because I am not that used to play on this level either. 

Hope for a great future
Despite of only being 25-years old, Jille has already participated in many of the bigger events, and he admits that he hopes that the Netherlands will soon be competitive at the bigger team events.

- We do not come with high expectations. We just want to learn and hopefully build something for the future. I think we have some talent and some good generations (in Dutch men’s badminton), Jille stated.

- We are not old ourselves, and we try to push and help the younger guys in practice every day to keep up and get to our level, and hopefully it can push us to get higher too. I hope there is a great future, but it is tough.

You can follow the Dutch team at Thomas Cup 2020 here