Denmark Open: Marin through to her first-ever Denmark Open final

Carolina Marin's maiden Denmark Open final

The semi-finals of the Denmark Open 2020 started off with a wonderful women’s doubles match featuring the second seeds. Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan breezed past Christine Busch and Amalie Schulz 21-18 21-6. They were dominant and beat them at ease in 37 minutes.

Olympic champion Carolina Marin made her way to her maiden Denmark Open final with a thumping victory over Yvonne Li Of Germany in the semi-finals. The match lasted 34 minutes with a score line of 21-17, 21-11.

The world no 125 in men’s doubles, Joel Eipe and Rasmus Kjaer who made a major upset by beating senior compatriots and home favourite for the title, Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen, lost to Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge. The Danish youngsters gave the Englishmen a tough fight before losing 22-20, 21-16.

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Also Read: Denmark Open 2020: Kidambi Srikanth goes down fighting to Chou Tien Chen

In the women’s doubles category, second seed Mayu and Nagahara were in fiery form, outclassing the Bulgarian Stoeva sisters 21-17, 21-8. The Stoeva sisters were trying their best to keep up in play and retrieve shots, but it was not enough for them to win points.

It was a historic win in the men’s singles category for Rasmus Gemke. He became the first Danish player in 10 years to make it to the finals in the Denmark Open ever since Jan O Jorgensen had won the home title, 10 years ago. Kenta Nishimoto struggled to find his rhythm and keep pace with the Dane. Occasionally he came up with some perfectly placed shots and won points. Rasmus worked hard every point and converted rallies in his favour. The Japanese seemed fatigued and slower than the young Dane. Rasmus Gemke won the match 21-14, 21-17.

Rasmus Gemke Denmark Open — (Image credits: Twitter) Rasmus Gemke of Denmark

Nozomi Okuhara was extremely sharp in the semi-final. It was a completely one-sided affair as the Japanese won the match 21-10,21-7. Okuhara chased the shuttle everywhere and played shots to perfection leaving Michelle Li baffled despite her best efforts. With Marin and Okuhara in good form, the women’s singles final is certainly going to be exciting.

The Russian Pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov triumphed over Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in a thrilling three setter 21-15, 18-21, 21-14 in 57 minutes. The English Husband-wife pair of Chris and Gabby Adcock made their way to the final of the Danisa Denmark Open. It was a 41 minute match against Julien Maio and Lea Palermo which they won 21-12, 22-20.

It was a brilliant game between Chou Tien Chen and Anders Antonsen fighting for a berth in the finals of the men’s singles category. Antonsen has never been in a Super 750 final. The first game went neck-to-neck. It was filled with wonderful long rallies, pushing each other to all the corners of the court, smashes, and wonderful net-play. But Anders broke the momentum and stormed to a 17-13 lead with 5 straight points. The round the head cross-court smash was a crucial point for Antonsen as the score read 19-15, Chou trailing. An error of judgement from Chou along the backline gave 4 match point opportunities to the young Dane. The Dane won the opening game 21-17 in 24 minutes.

Chou tried to increase the tempo of the rallies in the first half of the second game. In the process, he gave away a few points. Anders went into the lead 10-4. Anders caught Chou multiple times at the net. Chou’s confidence level went down near the next, Antonsen pounced on that weakness. His smashes had great angles and found the lines and body. Antonsen was clearly winning the game and it was done 21-15 in the second game.

What a day it is going to for Denmark to have an all Denmark men’s singles final!

Isabel Herttrich and Mark Lamsfuss upset the second seed of Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 21-18, 21-18 to become the first German pair to feature in the mixed doubles finals of the Denmark Open.

And that’s a wrap of the semi-finals of the Danisa Denmark Open 2020.