The first day of the LI-NING Denmark Challenge 2019 has finished with several the top players still in the tournament despite potential banana skins.
One shock of the day was Jan Ø Jørgensen being knocked out by Kalle Koljonen from Finland, you can read more about it here.
Fine margins
Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus is into tomorrow’s quarter finals stage but only through grit and determination from the Dane who needed three games to book his place.
The 33-year old started the match off in a strong fashion, managing to beat his opponent from the USA in comfortable style, 21-12.
This looked good for Vittinghus, going into what could and perhaps should have been the final game, but Ye Binghong had other ideas. The 22-year old managed to find Vittinghus's weak points and capitalised, to level with a game each, winning the second game 21-14.
The third game then was going to decide the match and with Vittinghus wanting to impress in front of a home crowd, the Dane put a lot of energy into securing his place in the quarter finals, winning the match eventually 21-17.
See the draw for the quarterfinals here.
- I hope to win it all
Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus spoke to Badminton Europe after the match and gave his assessment as well as setting out his aims for the weekend.
Vittinghus is into the quarter finals and will play Kim Brunn from Denmark on Saturday, after coming through two rounds on Friday.
- I am hoping to win it all, but I just want to make sure that I am enjoying my game. I have a job to do and I need to be more consistent in the two matches that I will hopefully play tomorrow, Solberg Vittinghus said.
- I lost a bit of power in the second game and he took advantages of that. I am happy that I have gotten through in the end, he added.
Vittinghus spoke about the flow of the match and points that he should not have given away to his opponent.
- I built up a lead and lost it so had to invest all my energy to get it back, my opponent was very good in all four corners.
- It is tough with the long days, waking up at six with the little one and then playing two matches in the evening, but my opponent came through three qualifiers yesterday, so he has had it tougher.