DENMARK OPEN 2013 R16 – “It feels like the 2011 All England all over again.”

It is approaching three years since Marie Roepke & Line Kruse burst onto the international scene with a run to the semi-final of the All England. The Danish#2 women’s doubles pair have had an up and down partnership ever since…but that may have all changed.

By Mark Phelan, live in Odense.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The highlights over the past couple of years for Marie Roepke and Line Kruse (pictured) have been a handful of victories on the European circuit and a silver medal at the European Championships in Sweden.  Today, however, on home soil the duo defeated reigning champion Ma Jin and her new partner Zhong Qianxin to move to the quarter-finals in a match that hearkened back to some of the brilliance they displayed at the NIA in Birmingham in 2011.

A capacity crowd had gathered to see the Danish stars in the early morning action and it was not long before the focus of the full arena was transfixed on Court 3 as Roepke & Kruse saved two game points in the first game to take it 22-20.

“Winning the first game gave us a lot of self-belief as it is not very often a Chinese pair lose game point opportunities,” commented Kruse.

The Chinese did level the match by winning the second game even after the Danes raced into an 8-1 lead. The third game had the entire arena on the edge of their seats with some very long rallies as both pairs tried not to make a mistake.

“We had a plan and we stuck to it in the deciding game. We had to maintain our discipline, which we managed to do,” commented Kruse.

Roepke & Kruse came through 21-15 in the final game to set up a quarter-final meeting with compatriots Pedersen & Rytter Juhl. Marie Roepke enjoyed the winning feeling today but was mindful not to build up their expectations ahead of tomorrow’s quarter-final against their more illustrious team-mates.

“Today was like that All England feeling from 2011 once again. After that match, this has probably been our best result. Tomorrow we face Kamilla & Christinna and of course they are favourites to win but for sure we will be going for the victory.”

Kristiansen & Houmann roll back the years

Danish Vveterans Anders Kristiansen & Julie Houmann (photo) rolled back the years to come back from a game down to beat Japanese duo Hashimoto & Maeda. The world number 19 pairing have had an enforced break due to a recent injury to Kristiansen, who has been seen recently on the European circuit coaching some of the younger players during his recuperation period.

The Danes took their time to find their ‘A’ game but once they levelled the match at one game apiece, their momentum took them home in what was a magical Danish hour in Odense.

In the match of the day on the BWF’s streaming court, Chen Long came through an epic three-game battle against a resilient Rajiv Ouseph (photo) of England in a game that extended to 1 hour 20 minutes before the final shuttle fell and the Chinese #2 seed celebrated as if he had just won the title.  (Video footage of the Chen-Ouseph match available here, subject to some regional restrictions)

Click here for all Round of 16 results from Odense