General

Strong European performances in Paris
Date: 10/28/2012 11:13 AM
Published by : Manuel Røsler

The European top players showed a great form at this week's Yonex French Open by reaching two finals and three semi-final spots. Youngster Viktor Axelsen (pictured) reached his first Superseries final. The 18-year-old from Odense lost Sunday's final to Malaysian Daren Liew in two games.

"Daren made it hard for me today, but I didn't manage to find the same rhythm and the same good feeling as in my previous games this week. Of course I'm disappointed right now.  But still I'm looking back at week where I've played the best badminton of my career. So a lot of positive things to look at obviously. It has been an amazing experience to play in Paris and what an amazing crowd", wrote Axelsen, who will fly to Japan today to take part at the BWF World Junior Championships, on his official Facebook page.

Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl lost their final to the Chinese duo of Jin Ma/Jinhua Tang (CHN) 21-12 23-21 after 44 minutes of fighting.

Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier's fine run at the Yonex French Open came to an end in the mixed doubles semi-finals on Saturday. The seventh seeds went down for the third time in a row to top seeds and world No 1 pair Xu Chen and Ma Jin. The Chinese pair won 21-14, 21-19 in 40 minutes and are now chasing a second title in two weeks after winning the Yonex Denmark Open in Odense  last Sunday.

Juliane Schenk (Germany) and Jan Ø. Jørgensen (Denmark) reached the semi-finals in the singles event to complete a successful tournament from a European perspective. "I lost in rubber set to Daren Liew who played a great match. I had my chances but it wasnt my day yesterday. Im a bit dissapointed with the way things ended but i cant really do much about it. I guess you can say that, that i somehow found my own game again. I have been struggeling the most of 2012 qualifying for the olympics and that has simply made me think of results instead of getting better", said Jan Ø. Jørgensen on his official Facebook page.

The finals of 2012 Yonex French Open:

MS Daren Liew (MAS) - Viktor Axelsen (DEN) 21:18 21:17
WS Minatsu Mitani (JPN) - Saina Nehwal (IND) 21:19 21:11
MD Sung Hyun/Yong Dae (KOR) - Issara/Jongjit (THA) 22:24 21:17 21:11
WD Ma/Tang (CHN) - Pedersen/Rytter Juhl (DEN) 21:12 23:21 
MX Chen/Jin (CHN) - Zihan/Yixin (CHN) 21:17 19:21 21:18

To view all results from Paris click here.

Photo by BadmintonPhoto

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