BWF WORLD SUPER SERIES - DENMARK OPEN 2009: Youngsters steal the show

Qualifying rounds are always the best time to see old names… and new ones. Amongst the former top players, Anne Marie Pedersen, Sune Gavnholt and Kasper Oedum, for instance, tried their luck in Tuesday’s qualifying rounds but only Gavnholt managed to get his ticket to the main draw.

As a symbol of the generation battle, it was the new jewel of Denmark, Karina Jorgensen, who ended Anne Marie Pedersen’s run.

If Karina Jorgensen is clearly one of Denmark’s talented future players – she is the 2007 European junior champion, another couple of former junior champions shone in Odense. First, Sam Mc Gee, the current men’s double junior European champion, who qualified with his sister against the odds, beating England’s Andrew Ellis and Emma Mason.

He was close to making another upset when he and younger partner Tony Stephenson almost upset England’s Marcus Ellis and Peter Mills, going all the way to the third game and saving three match points –and wasting one -before bowing 23/25 in the decider.

Another bright prospect for the future lies in the hands of India’s R.M.V Gurusaidutt. The 19 year old showed some impressive badminton in his two victories of the day, first against his compatriot Ajay Jayaram, and then, against Raul Must of Estonia, who is amongst Europe’s most reliable shuttlers on the tour and top seed in the qualification draw.

But the youngster from Hyderabad showed determination and the mental strength to secure a win in three games after failing to convert a match point in the second game.

“I should have killed the shuttle then, but I thought it was out but then it landed in. It’s a shame I couldn’t win in straight games as he really made me work hard in the third game. It was good that I took a lead before switching sides, but then he caught back at 17/17. I was just lucky I could pull it home,” said the Indian.

He had more than luck to clinch the final victory 21/14 – 21/23 – 21/17 – he showed in Denmark that his bronze medal in the world junior championships in 2008 was no fluke.

“The level is now building up in India. As for myself, however, I mostly need to focus on my training schedule – I’m in the middle of a six-week program and this event together with a local tournament will be my only remaining tournaments. My main focus is the National Senior Championships where I hope to do well and, in a longer term, maybe enter the top 20,” said Gurusaidutt who will take on Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland in Wednesday’s first round.

Before the competition started, there were some bad news for the locals – the spectators will not see their current world champions on stage : Thomas Laybourn injured himself in the knee during training and was forced to withdraw, leaving Denmark’s mixed doubles hopes on the shoulders of Camilla Pedersen and Joachim Fischer Nielsen, seeded second for this event.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:37 AM. Filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0