Euro Individuals SF – World Champions March On

Images, Article and video by Mark Phelan (Live in Manchester)

Laybourn and Juhl (pictured), who have been hampered by injury over the course of the past months, continue to display a gradual return to form as they effortlessly ended the final dreams of Belgian veterans Claes and Deschamps.

The Belgian pair put up some resistance early on in the opening set but the Danish world champions soon put a stop to any hopes or aspirations Claes and Deschamps had of defying the odds as they strung a run of 8 unanswered points together back to back in the middle of the set.

Rytter Juhl and Laybourn continued to dominate in all areas and took the first set 21-8. The second set went much the same way as the first with the Belgians never able to break down the resistance defence of the world champions.

Trailing by one at 15-14 it looked like the underdogs were in with a chance of at least taking the match to a deciding rubber but the Danes were having none of it and immediately drove home their dominance to take the remaining 6 points to seal victory and advance to Sunday’s final.

Hear the world champions’ thoughts on their game in their exclusive interview with Badzine below:

The Danes opponents in tomorrow’s final will be number 2 seeds Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk as the Poles were pushed hard by home favourites Jenny Wallwork and Nathan Robertson. The Poles took the opening set before losing concentration to let the English duo back into the match with victory in the second but the third set was all Poland as they cruised into tomorrow’s final.

Badzine’s European Championship coverage is brought to you in association with our partner hotel for the tournament, The Palace Hotel, Manchester.