Circuit

Photo: BEC
Two title debuts in Dublin
Date: 11/19/2022 10:46 PM
Published by : Thomas Fuchs (BEC)
Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore in mixed doubles as well as Magnus Johannesen in men’s singles won their first-ever International Challenge at the AIG FZ FORZA Irish Open 2022. 
 
In the first final of the day, the English Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore met Andreas Søndergaard and Iben Bergstein from Denmark. The young Danes have had a great week in Dublin so far playing some of their “best badminton ever” as Søndergaard described it after winning their semifinal on Friday. But Mairs and Moore played out their experience in today’s final. With 21-13 21-16 they took their first International Challenge title as a pair. “I was looking at my Facebook memories this morning. And five years ago on this day we won our first International Series in Norway. So I was like: ‘Okay, today is the day.’ We’re so happy”, smiled Gregory Mairs after the medal ceremony. 
 
Magnus Johannesen was the second European to win the title in Dublin. And also for him it was the first-ever International Challenge title of his career. The 20-year-old faced Lin Chun-Yi (TPE) in the final and pulled off a solid win 21-14 21-17. 
 
“Of course, it was the goal to win a Challenge. I’ve lost the final in Italy earlier this year, so it’s nice to have reached that one”, said Johannesen. For the upcoming year he plans “to keep doing well at the Challenges and also play some of the Super 100 and 300 tournaments.”
 
Two more Danish pairs were gearing up for the finals in Dublin but had to settle as runner-up in the Irish Open 2022. Christine Busch and Amalie Schulz lost to Chang/Yang (TPE) 21-19 12-21 19-21. In men’s doubles, Rasmus Kjær and Frederik Søgaard had a clear plan heading into the clash with Endo/Takei from Japan: “We’ve played a couple of Japanese pairs already. They are very quick and have a different playing style than ours. So, we have to make sure the game is not too fast all the time. We’ll see what happens in there”, said Kjær prior to the match. But unfortunately, the Japanese pair pushed too hard and eventually took the win 21-18 21-12. 
 
In the Japanese-only women’s singles final Riko Gunji beat her compatriot Natsuki Nidaira 21-13 21-11. Gunji had also taken out number one seed Mia Blichfeldt from Denmark in the semifinal. 
 
A great week of badminton comes to an end in Dublin. Find all results from finals day here

If you missed the all the action, check our Instagram account for highlight content or watch all matches on demand on badmintoneurope.tv
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