WORLDS 2013 SF – Boe and Mogensen into first final

Denmark’s Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen (pictured) survive Kims and Cards to reach the final at the Wang Lao Ji BWF World Badminton Championships.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Guangzhou.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Olympic silver medallists Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen fought back from a game down to win a nail-biter over Korea’s Kim Ki Jung and Kim Sa Rang (pictured below left).  Kim/Kim were vying to snatch a World Championship men’s doubles berth for Korea for the fourth time in the past five editions.

It will be the first World Championship final for the Danes, who have already competed in the finals of the last four Superseries Finals events in addition to the Olympic gold medal match in London last August.

It did not come easy for the Danes, however.  In addition to several service fault calls at crucial moments, Carsten Mogensen received first a yellow card – which he later guessed was for tying his shoe without permission – and then a mysterious red card that gave the Koreans a point and the serve to bring up 18-19 in the deciding game.

The Danes were very effective throughout the deciding game, however, at staying a step ahead of the Koreans, preventing them from taking the lead by staying sharp in the first three shots, and forcing the younger Kims to lift first and give away the advantage in the rally.

“Our opponents are so good on their service returns,” said Kim Sa Rang, “and my serve suffered as a result.  We were always so uneasy when we had the serve.

“We were so close to beating them that I think if we can just improve on the things we didn’t do well today we can beat them.”

Asked what happened with the red card, Carsten Mogensen replied, “I don’t know.  You can ask the umpire.  I don’t know if she would even know what happened.

“It’s always like this whenever we have her as a service judge or umpire.  It’s a shame, I think, that we can have an umpire like this in the World Championships but of course, when we won the match, we were very happy.

“Of course, it affected us a little bit but we told each other that we just have to laugh a little and enjoy being in the semi-final of the World Championships and then we won the last two rallies.

“The last few times we played this pair, we were at almost 100% but today, we didn’t play our best.  Of course, it is the World Championships so you are a little bit more nervous.

“It’s always easier to play when the others are the favourites.  Then you can just play and relax and enjoy it but today it was we who were the favourites.

“Tomorrow will be another tough match.  It’s another pair, another style but we had a little practice yesterday in the quarter-final against another Indonesian pair so they have almost the same style.

“The last time we played them, it was the first round of the French Open and we almost withdrew.  We were tired from the Denmark Open and we were also still in a state of confusion after losing the Olympic final.  We were quite slow but they played very well and we have a lot of respect for them.

“We are not nervous now but tomorrow of course, we are playing in a World Championship final so if you are not a little bit nervous, then you should stop I think.

“But they won the last two tournaments so I think they are the favourites.  It’s very good for us because we can just come and they have all the pressure.”

Not all the news was good for Denmark, however, as Christinna Pedersen / Kamilla Rytter Juhl came up just short after pushing world #1’s Wang Xiaoli / Yu Yang (pictured) in their semi-final.

Click here for complete semi-final results