ODENSE, October 19, 2020 - Badminton is back and Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota picked up where they left off seven months ago by winning the women’s doubles title at the Danisa Denmark Open on Sunday afternoon (October 18).
The top seeds, who won the Yonex All England title in the last event before the Covid pandemic forced a raft of events to be cancelled or postponed, celebrated the return of international badminton with their victory in Odense.
They defeated team-mates and second seeds Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-10 16-21 21-18 in a 56-minute final to add the Denmark title to their win in Birmingham on March 15.
But pride of place on finals day went to Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge, who had the pleasure of lifting the first title since the restart. Not only that, they became England’s first winners of the Denmark Open men’s doubles title since Dave Eddy and Ed Sutton in 1975.
Ellis, who reached the All England semi-finals in the mixed doubles and quarter-finals in the men’s doubles, went all the way this time when he and Langridge, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallists and 2018 Commonwealth golden boys, avenged their Birmingham defeat by Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov.
They toppled the Russian pair 20-22 21-17 21-18 despite looking down and out when trailing
7-2 in the decider before a comment from the gallery triggered a fightback to win the day’s longest final at 74 minutes and end England’s long wait for the men’s doubles title.
But the wait must go on for three-times world and 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin with the Spanish star losing the women’s singles final 21-19 21-17 against Japan’s top seed Nozomi Okuhara, the 2017 world champion. It means that the Denmark crown is one of the few titles Marin has yet to win but it was Okuhara’s first title since the Hong Kong Open in November 2018 and it made up for the defeat in last year’s Denmark Open final.
There was a title for Germany in the mixed doubles when fourth seeds Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich followed up their defeat of second seeds Ellis and Lauren Smith in the semi-finals by defeating England’s fourth seeds Chris and Gabby Adcock 18-21 21-11 21-14 in the shortest final at 50 minutes.
The return to badminton finished with an all-Danish final – a fitting reward for Badminton Denmark’s efforts in conjunction with the Badminton World Federation to stage this tournament – and with fans allowed in to watch the five days of action.
The men’s singles title went to 2019 world runner-up Anders Antonsen, who defeated Rasmus Genke in the final, having brought the curtain down on the career of another Dane, Jan O. Jorgensen in the quarter-final. Like the men’s doubles, the singles lasted 74 minutes before Antonsen finally cam e from behind to win 18-21 21-19 21-12 after Gemke had led 16-12 in the second game.
But now the top players must wait until January before the action continues with the rearranged Asian legs of the World Tour and World Tour Finals.
