At the YONEX Denmark Open 2013 in Odense, Lee Chong Wei (VTZF, SHB01LTD), Mohammad Ahsan (ARC-FB,SHBF1NLTD)/Hendra Setiawan (NR800, SHBF1NLTD) and Christinna Pedersen (NR800, SHB01-LX)/Kamilla Rytter Juhl (NR-ZSP) all won silver medals. The world champion Ratchanok Intanon (ARC-FB, SHB01-LX) came back from her injury to capture a silver medal as well.
Chong Wei, who won the YONEX OPEN JAPAN title last month, advanced to the final after two full set matches in the quarterfinal and semifinal. Against the local hero Jan O Jorgensen, he played a back and forth game, winning the quarterfinal match by a score of 8-21 21-18 21-5. Chong Wei won the almost 1-hour semifinal match against Du Pengyu of China with a close, 20-22 21-6 21-15 victory. He gave an exciting performance in a 68 minute final match, but ultimately lost to Chen Long of China.
Mohammad and Hendra, who have been demonstrating good form this year, also had a tough quarterfinal against Hirokatsu Hashimoto (ARC11)/Noriyasu Hirata (ARC11) and semifinal against Hiroyuki Endo (VTZF)/Kenichi Hayakawa. Playing against Hirokatsu/Noriyasu, the Indonesian duo came back from losing the first game to win the match be a score of18-21 21-17 21-13. The semifinal was also tough for them. In the first game, Hiroyuki/Kenichi faced the game point at 20-19, however, Mohammad/Hendra played with confidence to capture the game 27-25. The second game was close as well, and at the third match point, Mohammad delivered a powerful smash to secure the final spot by a winning score of 27-25 23-21. They thrilled fans during an autograph session even though they came in second after the loss against Korea’s Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong.
The London Grand Prix Gold winners Kamilla/Christinna advanced to the final as the only Danish players to win silver. In addition to Kamilla, other players also competed in this event with the new NANORAY Z-SPEED. Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia started to use it at this event and Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong became quarterfinalists with the new racquet.
Check out our Facebook photo album of this event here.
These players will all play another Superseries event, the YONEX French Open this week. Stay tuned!
Men’s Singles
[2] Chen Long (CH) def. [1]Lee Chong Wei (VTZF, SHB01LTD)(MAS) 24-22 21-19
Women’s Singles
[5]Wang Yihan (CHN) def. Sung Ji Hyun (KOR) 16-21 21-18 22-20
Men’s Doubles
[8]Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) def. [1]Mohammad Ahsan (ARC-FB, SHBF1NLTD)/Hendra Setiawan
(NR800, SHBF1NLTD)(INA) ) 21-19 21-16
Women’s Doubles
Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua (CHN) def. [2]Christinna Pedersen (NR800, SHB01-LX)(DEN)/Kamilla Rytter Juhl (NR-ZSP)(DEN)
21-16 21-13
Mixed Doubles
[1]Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) def. [3]Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA) 21-11 22-20