Out of the ten European athletes that started day four at the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships, seven — two pairs and three singles players — are through to the final stages of the competition.
The first happy doubles pair to advance to the quarterfinals were Danes Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje. They managed to defeat Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping, China, 21-15 21-18.
For fellow Danes Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen it was fairly easy. They managed to defeat Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia, in just 34 minutes in a wonderful performance.
In his post-match interview, Rasmussen reflected on the emotions that playing in front of his loved ones brought him: “Feeling ecstatic, one thing is to win a match to get to the quarterfinals of the World Championships, another is doing it on home soil. Really amazing, we have friends and family sitting in the crowd and sponsors and whatsoever is just an amazing feeling”.
The Danish duo will face second seeded Indian counterparts, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
In the women’s singles draw, Carolina Marin faced Thet Htar Thuza of Myanmar. Despite a little scare in the second game, the Spaniard came out on top 21-10 21-18. She will look to improve her concentration in tomorrow's quarterfinals.
“Actually, I have to learn a lot from today because I was not focused in the way that I wanted. When you keep the focus on the score you forget your game plan. I need to learn from today because tomorrow is going to be a really tough game, maybe against Tai Tzu Ying. So I look forward to keep thinking, and to maintaining the focus on the strategy that we make before the game because that is the way to win any game”.
To finish off the day strong, both Danish men standing in the men’s singles draw, Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen, managed to secure convincing wins.
A lot of positives to take from day 4 at the World Championships. Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to some of our European players.
French pair Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue lost to Malaysian duo Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei in a tough fight. After winning the first game, and a close second game, they could not stop their opponents from taking the win in the decider. The final score was 22-20, 19-21, 12-21.
In addition, we saw the losses of Danish Mia Blichfeldt and Dutch pair Kirsten De Wit and Alyssa Tirtosentono, both in straight games.
Matches tomorrow start at 11am, we’re counting on your support.