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Astrup and Rasmussen scrape past Koreans into quarterfinal
Date: 2/20/2020 3:23 PM
Published by : Alan Raftery
In round two of the Barcelona Spain Masters, the European Games finalists and recent winners of the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships, Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen had a tough match-up on their hands. 

Lee Yong Dae and Kim Gi Jung of South Korea, hit the heights of old this year when winning the Malaysia Masters, and have hopes on climbing further up the rankings with recent uncertainties over the Korean national team players. Although Astrup and Rasmussen, the fourth seeds, were not going to let them pass easily. 

After the Danes held onto the opening game, despite a late four-point surge from the Koreans, Lee and Kim took hold of the match and continued their momentum into the third game. However, the Danes had a second wind midway through the third game and fought their way to a 22-20 win. 

Astrup and Rasmussen will now face the winner of Fikri/Maulana and Lee/Yang of Chinese Taipei, who narrowly defeated the eighth seeds Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen in the first round. 

Another 22-20 in the third
A pair that have already tasted success at a World Tour Super 300 tournament are Danish mixed doubles partnership, Mathias Bay-Smidt and Rikke Soby, after a sensational Swiss Open title last year. 

In round two today, they faced a tough pair in the newly crowned German national champions, Jones Ralfy Jansen and Kilasu Ostermeyer. After an up and down match, it came down to the decider, where in fact it was the German pair who had match point. Failing to convert, the Danish duo with one last push, got over the line to win 22-20. 

Bay-Smidt and Soby will now face Russian pair, Italian International winners, Vladimir Ivanov and Ekaterina Bolotova in the quarterfinal. 

For the full results and fixtures, click here

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