The first round of the Korea Open has taken place yesterday in Incheon and it was a busy for one the Danes.
No less than ten matches featured Danish representatives at the Super 500 event. Notable mentions include the bounce back of Viktor Axelsen following his early China Open exit. The opening round this time went according to plan. The young Chinese Zhou Jun Peng had no answer to Axelsen’s pressure, losing 21-12, 21-15. The bounce back continues in the second round against Malaysia’s promising star, Lee Zii Jia.
It wasn’t luck
A men’s doubles pair gaining great momentum now is Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen. Last week they had a fantastic scalp in the form of seeded Chinese pair Han and Zhou. This week in Korea they met once again. However, despite the first meeting being close, this time Boe and Conrad-Petersen were ruthless, and dispatched their opponents 21-12, 21-9.
Round 2 picks
Boe and Conrad-Petersen will now face an Indonesian pair with a lot of flair, Arya Pangkaryanira and Santoso. Both pairs are on an upward trajectory in form and haven’t played against each other before.
Jan O. Jorgensen will face narrow China Open runner-up Anthony Ginting (INA). It may initially seem like a tough task on paper. But the Dane has a three to one head to head, with the one loss being a retirement. Ginting will not have had much time to recover since Sunday, this could be a very interesting match.
Astrup and Skaarup Rasmussen had a delightfully solid victory of Japan's in-form seed-killers Hoki and Kobayashi, and now face the pair who will have significant home support, Korea's Choi and Seo. Once again, it will be their first encounter, making it all the more interesting.
For the full results and fixtures, click
here.