ALL ENGLAND 2013 R16 – Boe/Mogensen compound Danish misery

World number 1 pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen joined a surprising number of their Danish teammates as they crashed out of the Yonex All England in a 27-25 3rd game thriller won by upstarts Liu/Qiu

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from Birmingham.  Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live).

The Danish lean patch at this year’s Yonex All England Badminton Championships continues as once again it contributed to the growing list of casualties for the seeded players. Boe and Mogensen (pictured right), who last month suffered a shock defeat at the European Mixed Team Championships to Chris Adcock and Andy Ellis of England, again showed frailty as they fell to Liu Xiaolong and Qiu Zihan (pictured below) of China.

The first game gave no indication of the upset as Boe/Mogensen dominated at the net, leading from the first point and racing away with the game, the score finishing 11-21.

Their fortunes were reversed with the change in ends however, as the net play went in favour of Liu/Qiu, and a number of errors in judgement on leaving clears saw the Danes lose their cohesiveness, allowing the Chinese to take the game 21-11.

The third game was an intense affair, as both pairs matched each other for smashes and net play. The deciding factor was who committed the last error and with the players straying too close to the net cord in cagey, fast and flat driving rallies it was inevitable that the risk taken would punish. A very vocal Danish crowd could not help their players, as Liu/Qiu held their nerve to seal the rubber game 27-25 to the shock of the crowd.

Speaking after the match, the Danes commented on why they lost, saying: “It was a very close game in the end. They [Liu/Qiu] managed to get some very good rallies at the end to take it away from us.”

On whether they felt any added pressure after a run of disappointing Danish performances: “No, not really it’s an individual sport, we play for ourselves. We will continue with the Superseries and move on to the next tournament.”

For the part of Liu and Qiu, this is a big result for the Chinese team, as they are themselves the only Chinese representatives left in the men’s doubles discipline at the tournament.

The full results for the day can be found here.

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