The badminton tournament at the Olympics has started today, and both Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen, Viktor Axelsen and Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup played on the first day of the Olympics. It resulted in Danish victories in all three games.
The badminton tournament at the 2024 Olympics is underway, and already on the first day we had Danes in action.
The first Danes on the Olympic courts were the women’s doubles with Maiken Fruergaard/Sara Thygesen. They faced a tough task against world number two, All England winners Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee from Korea. The Danes themselves rank as number 25 in the world.
That the Korean pair is so far above the Danes, however, could not be felt in any way in the first set. From the start of the match, the two pairs were followed closely. After this, however, it was the Danes who pulled away and could go to the break with a lead of 11-8. For the rest of the set, the Danes stayed ahead with a few points, until Sara Thygesen closed the first set 21-18 in Denmark’s favor at the net.
However, it looked completely different in the second set. Danish errors led to an 11-3 Korean lead at the break, and the comeback in the set did not materialize for the Danes. The second set ended with Maiken Fruergaard sending the ball over the sideline to make it 9-21.
Thus, the match was to be decided in the third set. Here the Danes got off to a good start again, and after the Koreans sent the ball out, the Danes were ahead with five points at the change of sides. And they continued to subtract. Only at 18-9 did the Danes again make a small mistake, where the Koreans got a small shoal going. However, the Danes stopped it nicely again, and with 20-13 the Danes had seven match points. One was misused, but after a couple of great defensive actions by the Danes, Lee So Hee hit the ball in the middle of the net, with which the Danish victory was 21-14.
Strong play by the Danish women’s doubles, who won 21-18, 9-21, 21-14 over the world number two, in their first match at this Olympics.
The next match for Fruergaard/Thygesen is against Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai. It is on Monday 29 July, and the match will be started at 19.30 at the earliest.
Read also: How you can follow the badminton players to the Olympics
After this, it was Viktor Axelsen’s turn to play his first match at this Olympics. The defending Olympic champion and world number two was heavily favored against Nepal’s Prince Dahal, ranked number 172 in the world.
The Dane also got off to a flying start, with Dahal finding it difficult to keep up with Axelsen’s pace. At the break, the world runner-up was ahead with 11-2, and for the rest of the set, not many Nepalese points were made either. After a ball that Dahal shot out, the first set was closed with 21-8 in Denmark’s favour.
The second set followed largely the same recipe as the first, with the Dane again having a very superior start. With a pin smash that Dahal could not reach, the Dane secured the victory with 21-6 in the second set.
The next match for the defending Olympic champion is against Israel’s Misha Zilberman, and it will be on Monday, July 29, at the earliest at 10 p.m.
Read also: The groups are in place: Read everything about the Danish Olympic draw here
Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup were set to round off today’s Danish matches. The match was against on paper the weakest pair in their group, Vinson Chiu/Joshua Yuan from the USA. The Americans rank number 47 in the world rankings, with the Danes second.
In general, the Danes were comfortably ahead in the first set, which Skaarup closed at the net to 21-13. In the second set, however, it was the Americans who got off to the best start, and the score at the break read an American four-point lead. From 9-13, however, the Danes turned the game around, and in the second set it was a Danish victory of 21-16.
In this way, Astrup/Skaarup rounded off a first day at the Olympics, which, viewed from a Danish perspective, was perhaps something close to perfect, with three victories out of three possible.
Read also: Ready for Paris? Find out more about the seven Danish players here
The Danish men’s doubles will play again already tomorrow. This time they will face the defending Olympic champions, Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Yi from Taiwan.
Anders Antonsen will also be in action tomorrow. He meets Austrian Collins Filimon approx. at 7:30 p.m.
Antonsen’s match is shown on TV2 Sport/TV2 Play and Max, while Astrup/Skaarup’s match is shown on TV2/TV2 Play and Max. See here how you can follow the matches of the Danish badminton players.
We are crossing our fingers for more Danish success on the second day of the Olympics!
2024-07-27 23:53:06
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