Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (pictured) travelled to Finland this week with a load of pressure on his broad shoulders. Alongside Lena Grebak, Rasmussen is defending his mixed doubles title and with men’s doubles partner, Kim Astrup, the Dane knows that nothing less than a win will be good enough as they try and qualify for the world championships in Copenhagen in August.

So far so good for Skaarup Rasmussen as after today’s quarter and semi-finals the Dane finds himself right where he needs to be in a pair of finals on Sunday.

Rasmussen and Grebak had a scare in the mixed doubles quarter finals as Anastasia Russkikh caused them all sorts of problems on her return to the international stage.

The Danes eventually came through in three games before a dominant semi-final display against Ireland’s Chloe and Sam Magee secured their final spot for the second year running where they will play Högström and Ruponen from Sweden.

“The quarter final was tough as Russkikh is still a world class player and it took us some time to figure that new Russian pair out. In the semi we knew what we would get against the Irish as we had played them twice before and we were satisfied to come through in two games”

Rasmussen later paired up with Kim Astrup in the men’s doubles semi-final to defeat another Danish pair Mikkelsen and Colberg to get them with one match of the 4000 world ranking points they so desperately need to qualify for the summers World Championships.

Consistent Stoeva’s continue to silence their doubters

It has been a tough week for Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva off the court. The pair have had to deal with a lot of mental anxiety in the past few days but when the going gets tough the tough get going and the Stoeva’s have proved once again that they have what it takes to beat the best the Badminton Europe circuit has to throw at them.

The second seeded Bulgarians were easy winners over Golovanova and Vorobeva in their semi-finals and will relish the chance to play against Røpke and Kruse in tomorrow’s final after beating the Danes last week in France.

A heavily strapped thigh muscle, from an injury sustained in the match against the Danes last week, is still effecting the older of the Stoeva sister buts the Bulgarians are fighters not quitters and injury or not expect a really close match in tomorrow’s final.

A welcome return to form for Holst

It has been a lean year in terms of results for Emil Holst. The Danes last result came when he won the Bulgarian International six months ago. The intervening months have been one disappointment after another until today that is!

Holst defeated Scott Evans of Ireland in the semi-final and even when the Irishman fought back to level 19-19 from 19-13 down the Dane still managed to steady the ship to make it to the final with a 21-19 win in the second game.

“I got very nervous towards the end as it has been a while since I have been in this position. It is a big relief for me to be in the final as it has been a bad six months for me on court with a lot of bad matches” said Holst after his semi-final win.

Kjaersfeldt and Madsen set up all Danish final

Line Kjaersfeldt has come of age in 2014 and once again she showed her class to make the final this week in Finland and all without dropping a set. On the opposite end of the scale Anna Thea Madsen has spent the last two weeks battling on court daemons and making miraculous comebacks and unlike Kjaersfeldt, she has taken a more scenic route to her first final of 2014.

Kjaersfeldt will be hot favourite to lift the title with an unblemished record against her team mate but Madsen will never roll over and die as she has proven on three occasions in the past ten days.

Both players know each other inside out but Madsen will sure to find a source of confidence as she beat other Danish hot shot, Sandra Maria Jensen in the quarter final before taking down Perminova of Russia in a two game semi-final.

All the action will be LIVE on BETV with TV quality pictures from 11am local time.

To watch go to Badminton Europe’s YouTube channel by clicking HERE

For all results from Finland click HERE

For full photo gallery from Finland follow Badminton Europe on Facebook by clicking HERE

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Finland)