All the talk preceding the finals of the Forza Denmark International was about the women’s singles final and which of the two young Danes had the composure to go on and lift their very first senior international title. It had been a fairytale journey to the final for both Anna Thea Madsen, who came through qualification and is without a valid word ranking, and her slightly older  and more experienced opponent Sandra Maria Jensen. 

Jensen got off to a magical start and raced into a 14-6 lead but the fighter Madsen came right back to level at 14-14. Both players matched each other point for point before Jensen took the first with a clench fist 21-19. The second game appeared over when Jensen led 20-9 and she looked to be cruising to the title. However with the pressure off Anna Thea Madsen started to fight back and play with freedom and with every point it appeared that Jensen was going to throw it away. Madsen got it back to 20-18 before Jensen finally found the point she needed to take her first senior international title.

“I knew that Anna Thea would keep fighting as I know here very well so it did not surprise me that she came back. It was a great relief of pressure to finally create and get the winner with a smash down the line and even though it may look unexpected this is a reward for working and training hard” said Jensen to BE.tv.

Mads Kolding did the double by lifting two titles in this afternoons finals. The tale Dane took the first match of the day in the mixed with partner Julie Houmann as they continued their good form from the Europeans in Sweden and in the final match of the day Kolding teamed up with Christian Skovgaard to lift the men’s doubles title.

“It’s a good feeling to win both titles here and I look forward to going to Asia in the summer with Christian as we step up a level” said Kolding to BE.tv. “We have worked hard to get this victory today and for me it has been a while since I won on tour so at last I get on the top step of the podium” commented Skovgaard.

Henri Hurskainen took the men’s singles title with his best performance of the week against Rune Ulsing. The Swede, who knows at this stage how to beat any Dane in front of him, controlled the match from start to finish to leave Ulsing visually frustrated on court.

“This was my best match of the week and it is so good to come here and win after the silver medal in Karlskrona. I honestly only decided to come at the last minute and now I am happy I did. I will take some time off now and start my preparation for the Olympics in London. “ said Hurskainen to BE.tv.

In the women’s doubles Marie Røpke and Line Kruse retained their title in two games with victory over new English pair of Gabby White and Lauren Smith. “We struggled a bit all week with motivation and concentrated to be honest against other Danish pairs but that was never going to be an issue today against the English. It was nice to play a new pair also which really tested our game tactically.

You can revisit all the action on demand by logging onto BE.tv by clicking HERE

For all results click HERE

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Frederikshavn)