He didn’t break down and, yet, he experienced this Friday evening, shortly before 11 p.m., a scenario that would destabilize a man. While he led 18-14, then 20-18 in the third set of his singles quarter-final at the Danish Open (Super 750 of the World Tour) in Odense against Singaporean Loh Kean Yew, 2021 world champion and 11e world, Alex Lanier (ASPTT Strasbourg), 21ewas unable to conclude his two matches.
He in turn even had to save two before validating his ticket for the semi-finals on the third he had obtained (21-18, 15-21, 24-22). The Strasbourg resident thus put an end to a 1h20 suspense and won the right to face this Saturday, probably around 5 p.m., the Japanese Koki Watanabe, 13ewhom he defeated 22-20, 18-21, 21-19 on March 20 in the first round of the Swiss Open in Basel (Super 300), but which deprived him of the title on July 7 at the Canadian Open (Super 500) after another breathtaking game (20-22, 21-17, 21-6). This promises a third fierce duel, with a ticket to the final at stake.
Gicquel and Delrue out of the picture
On the other hand, the Danish epic of the Mulhouseian Thom Gicquel and the Camblysian Delphine Delrue, 23es in mixed, ended brutally during these same quarters against the Chinese Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping, world n°2 and seeded 1, winners for the third time in three confrontations, without discussion possible this time (21-11, 21-16).
Last week at the Arctic Open in Finland (Super 500), the 2024 European champions held off the Asian pair for a long time, even winning the first set before losing in three sets (23-21, 15- 21, 13-21). At lunchtime yesterday, they didn’t have a shadow of a chance, despite a surge at the start of the second set, up 8-6 in their favor, and three match shuttlecocks saved.
“We didn’t have a very good match. We never managed to get into it,” laments the Mulhouse native, “It’s a shame because we had a good match against them last week, but we didn’t manage to do it again. It’s like this: if you’re not completely against these pairs, it’s complicated. »
