Copenhagen Masters 2009 - Danish domination on first day

Leading the parade were last years’ winners, namely Peter Gade, Tine Rasmussen and the veteran pair of Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen. Surprisingly, all the Asian guests – representing either Indonesia or Malaysia – were not able to claim one single victory during the entire day. Due to this year’s incredible Danish success in mixed doubles on the world scene, spectators were privileged to four events instead of the usual three.

In men’s singles, local stars Jan Jorgensen and Peter Gade cruised through their opponents of the day, namely Germany's Marc Zwiebler and Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia. The latter, who also fell to Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands in the other men’s singles matchup of the day, didn’t seem too disappointed with his results: "I like playing here because of the atmosphere and the fact that it has only one court of play," said the Malaysian after his second loss.

"I was totally surprised when I got invited but I of course said yes right away because one cannot miss such a great chance to play in Europe in a setup like this."

Gade, on a quest for a possible 10th title, simply crushed the young Malaysian 21-7, 21-11. Compatriot Jan Jorgensen showed the way out to this year’s Denmark Open finalist, Marc Zwiebler, 21-17, 21-12.

Women’s singles was the scene of the tightest match and the only third-setter of the day between Ella Diehl of Russia and veteran Yao Jie of the Netherlands. In a match which at times seemed more like a fitness contest than anything else, both players battled for 58 minutes before Yao emerged the victor. Diehl started off well but gradually lost momentum as the match progressed.

"I was invited rather late to this tournament so I didn’t prepare as much as I wanted to," explained a talkative Ella Diehl after her match. When I got invited, on Dec 10th, I decided it would be nice to play here. It’s just for fun and I have nothing to lose. I was bit worried playing after resting for five days – due to planned holidays - but I’ve played Yao Jie so many times that I knew exactly what I was up against. In the first set, I was using the right strategy but in the second, I lost some focus and I started playing more at the net where Yao was already waiting for me. I knew I had to make her work and avoid the net because she’s got good hands.”

“Playing against Tine tomorrow in her home country in front of her fans will certainly be a greater challenge, though,” concluded the Russian.

In the other match-up of the women’s singles event, defending champion Tine Rasmussen had a bumpy start against up-and-coming star Lydia Cheah of Malaysia. The tall Asian started solidly against the Dane but quickly went down under her opponent’s stronger attacks.

“This really is a wonderful tournament for me”, said Rasmussen after her win. “For this first match, I was a bit worried because I’ve been down with the flu for a few days. Also, I wasn’t sure about my opponent’s game so I kept my focus on her instead of my own game”, explained the Dane for her slow start in the first game.

The men’s doubles remained under Danish control after both pairs wearing the red and white Scandinavian flag defeated their opponents in straight games. Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen beat Mak Hee Chun and Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia with a score of 21-16, 21-16. The Malaysians led for the entire second set until Tan started making many consecutive and fatal mistakes at 16-16. The Danes didn’t let that chance go by and scored five consecutive points to claim the match.

A bigger surprise was offered to the spectators in a match-up of world champions, 2003 winners Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen against 2007 winners and higher ranked Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia. Despite amazing behind-the-back trick shots that amused the crowd, the Indonesians were no match for the Danes’ more vicious attack and went down 12-21, 18-21.

The bonus event of the tournament, namely the mixed doubles, is the only one where Denmark had to give away a match during the entire day. The last-minute scratch pairing of Anders Kristiansen and Christinna Pedersen could not stop Poland’s duo of Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk. The latter pair quickly punished any shuttle that was a bit short or loose.

“Joachim got injured last night so I asked Anders at the last minute if he could play with me”, said Christinna Pedersen. ‘He’s a very good doubles player but Joachim and I still play against him in mixed at our club practices so he knows about the game. Anders and I did play mixed together but that was a long time ago. Still, our new partnership was not up to par with the Poles who are having a great year on the international circuit’.

On this year’s addition of the mixed doubles to the program, Pedersen was more than pleased: “Hopefully, they decided to include the event because of all the great results we Danes had in mixed this year.”

In the last match of the day, world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl had an easy way over two-time world champions Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia. Despite having difficulty in closing out the second set, the Danes emerged victorious with a convincing score of 21-12, 24-22.