The Danish Doubles player, Ditte Søby, spoke with Badminton Europe about her future plans, taking the energy for comebacks and her new study plans.
Ditte Søby started to play badminton at the age of five years. Today, the 21-year-old is participating in Mixed and Women’s Doubles.
This year, Søby was competing in six tournaments in total: The YONEX Swiss Open, Orleans Masters, Finnish Open, VICTOR Dutch International, IBERDROLA Spanish International and the LI NING Czech Open.
It is a victory to train without pain
Thereby, the Dane had to resign from three tournaments so far. The reason: a long-term shoulder injury.
- I have been struggling a lot with my shoulder the last couple of years. Right now, it is still a victory for me, if I can practice a whole month without any pain. So, I still need to take care of it and make sure I do not put too much strain on it.
Søby revealed to Badminton Europe, that she thought about stopping to play badminton at a professional level:
- It is never fun to be injured because it keeps you away from playing the game you love the most. And because of that, I have also had some tough periods, where I thought about quit playing.
A passion for badminton
However, Søby is still practising the sport that she loves the most and that she wants to practise every day:
- I think the energy to keep playing is that I love the game so much, and it is hard for me to imagine a life without badminton, simply, because it has always been a big part of my life.
At the end of September, Søby was able to participate in Mixed Doubles at the LI NING Czech Open with her partner, Jeppe Bay.
- The Czech Open was my first tournament in a while, and I really looked forward to playing there. It was my first time playing with Jeppe and therefore we didn’t have any high expectations.
- I had not played so many matches at practice and only had a few team matches for my club, Greve, so I had absolutely no clue what level I could play on. But it was an amazing feeling to play again and I really enjoyed staying on court with Jeppe.
The focus is on Mixed Doubles
Right now, the 21-year-old is world ranked number 144 with Julia Dawall Jakobsen in Women’s Doubles and 297 with Jeppe Bay in Mixed Doubles.
- Actually, I have always had more focus on Mixed Doubles. I played together with Alexander Bond for many years. Unfortunately, he got a bad knee injury about two years ago and since then, we were only able to play a few tournaments together.
- Unfortunately, it is not that easy to find a new partner, so that has been quite a struggle the last couple of months, but on the other hand a longer break was also beneficial for me.
This week, Søby will be participating in the Hungarian International with Jeppe Bay.
- I do not really know yet, what I am going to play after Hungary. My shoulder is still not completely healed, and the most important thing for me is to have long periods where I can practice normally without pain. So that is the main thing I am gonna spend my time on.
A multitask: Studies and badminton
Next, to playing badminton, Søby reveals her personal goals to Badminton Europe:
- I will start studying physiotherapy at University next winter. It is going to be a hard combination with badminton, but I am really dedicated to do study and still play badminton at a high level.
- For me, it is really important to have something besides badminton and to make sure I have something to do if I can’t play anymore.