Mixed feelings for the Danish doubles on Wednesday

Denmark is considered a badminton nation, and rightly so – this is evident not least from the number of Danish players competing in the main draw of the Swiss Open once again this year. Unfortunately, however, the quality of the nation's badminton play was not always as evident in the six doubles matches involving Danish players on Wednesday.

The men's doubles pairing of William Kryger BOE and Andreas SONDERGAARD played against Oliver BUTLER and Samuel JAMES from England. Although the Danes scored a solid 16 and 17 points respectively in both sets, it was not enough for victory. The women's doubles pairing of Kathrine VANG and Mette WERGE fared similarly: The pair faced LIN Xiao Min / WANG Yu Qiao (TPE) and played a clean, good game for long stretches. After losing the first set 18-21, the Danes managed to win the second set 21-16, but in the third set they lost their precision and confidence and VANG/WERGE were finally defeated 9-21.

Things went better for the men's doubles pair Christian Faust KJÆR / Rasmus KJÆR: they played against Donovan Willard WEE / Jia Hao Howin WONG from Singapore and took the first set with a score of 18. In the second set, the Danes stepped up their game even more and ultimately defeated the Singaporean pair 21-18, 21-9.

The Danish mixed pair Rasmus ESPERSEN / Amalie Cecilie KUDSK (world no. 31) faced the Malaysian pair Jimmy WONG / LAI Pei Jing (world no. 23). Espersen/Kudsk were in the lead for much of the first set but were unable to hold on and lost 18-21. The second set was a neck-and-neck race between the two mixed doubles pairs again: Espersen/Kudsk caught up with Wong/Lai point by point to reach 20-20, but still lost the set 20-22.

Also in the mixed doubles, Jesper TOFT / Amalie MAGELUND (world no. 13) from Denmark took on Dhruv KAPILA / Tanisha CRASTO (world no. 20) from India. Despite their 4th place in the seedings, there was nothing to be gained for the Danish mixed doubles pair: Despite repeatedly strong rallies and attractive badminton, they lost to Kapila/Crasto in two sets, 15-21, 14-21.

In the third Danish mixed doubles match, Mads VESTERGAARD / Christine BUSCH were scheduled to play Alexander DUNN / Julie MACPHERSON (SCO). However, as the Scottish pair did not start, BUSCH and VESTERGAARD can advance to tomorrow's round of 32 with a walkover victory – a small gift for the Dane, who is celebrating his birthday today.

Pictured: Boe / Sondergaard