COPENHAGEN MASTERS 2012 – Clean Sweep for Denmark

The host country Denmark bagged all the gold in the 2012 edition of the Copenhagen Masters. Joachim Fischer / Christinna Pedersen, Mads Pieler Kolding / Carsten Mogensen and Jan O Jorgensen emerged as winners in mixed doubles, men’s doubles and men’s singles events respectively.

By Serla Rusli and Yanyan Emily, Badzine Correspondents live from Copenhagen. Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

The opening match of finals day was between Danish top mixed doubles Joachim Fischer Nielsen / Christinna Pedersen (photo) and Thai veteran pair Sudket Prapakamol / Saralee Thoungthongkam. The close match, a repeat of their semi-final at the BWF Superseries Finals just two weeks earlier, ended in the Danes’ favour yet again, in 21-19, 21-17.

“We played well today, but made some mistakes. We were faster than our opponents, but we weren’t able to control the game. It was Fischer who dominated in the game,” said Saralee, who had hoped earlier in the day to beat the Danish pair for the first time.

With this year’s victory, Fischer/Pedersen have won three consecutive Copenhagen Masters titles.

“We played the best in this tournament. The Thais made it difficult, but we won in the end. We are happy to be in good form, and hope to do better in Korea,” commented Christinna. “The feeling to play well is stronger in front of the Danish audience as there has been great support from them.”

Next up was an all-Danish men’s doubles final between Rasmus Bonde / Mads Conrad-Petersen and an ‘emergency’ pairing of Mads Pieler Kolding and Carsten Mogensen (photo). Mathias Boe was down with illness a few hours before the finals and Kolding was called in to replace him to play in the finals. Lo and behold, the duo, who have only played with each other three times in the past five years, managed to beat the odds and emerged as the men’s doubles champions by beating their compatriots in a close battle of 21-23, 21-16, 23-21.

“We are of course really disappointed with the results. It’s “funny” because whenever we reach far, we have lost. Today, we are unlucky again although we were so close and we played really well,” explained Conrad. “We are a new pair, we know what we are capable of and we are getting to know each other well.”

Carsten Mogensen has managed to defend his title in this tournament even though this year, it was with a different partner. “It’s a tournament that I really want to play in, so it’s lucky that Kolding was ready. You can never have enough of victories, so I’m really happy. We are stronger in terms of skills, but we just didn’t really train together before.”

To the last minute stand-in replacement, it was an unexpected appearance in the finals as Kolding was beaten earlier in the day by Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam. “It is a strange, but fantastic feeling to play in the Copenhagen Masters final. I was of course nervous, but nobody expected us to win; thus I didn’t feel any pressure. I was at first still a little disappointed by the mixed doubles loss, which affected my game, but Carsten got me into tempo and I managed to catch up in the end.”

Another defending champion for the night was Jan O Jorgensen (photo). He snatched his third Copenhagen Masters title in just 29 minutes by beating Hu Yun from Hong Kong 21-12, 21-11.

“It is fantastic to win the Copenhagen Masters for the third time. The first time was like a dream, and now I really love playing here,” said Jan. “I hope to improve myself next year, and hope to come up among the 8 best players in the world.”

The audience at Copenhagen Masters once again witnessed the retirement of their top players. This time, Jonas Rasmussen and Thomas Laybourn (photo), both former World Champions, received a standing ovation in thanks for their achievements for badminton in Denmark.