Odense: The 23-year-old Anders Antonsen of Denmark has seemingly matured into one of the world’s best, when he played the Denmark Open final with maturity and greater mental toughness, staging a great comeback to beat compatriot Rasmus Gemke 18-21, 21-19, 21-12 on Sunday.
Antonsen made a lot of mistakes and seemed to lose focus midway through the first game, calling for an unsuccessful hawkeye review at 18-20 as Gemke ultimately took the first game 21-18.
The No. 3 seed Antonsen has gotten his groove back in the second set, showing his brilliant and resilient display of high-quality badminton to force a decider by claiming the second set 21-19.
Gemke then ran out of steam in the third set to eventually bow out against Antonsen 21-12.
The Denmark Open was Antonsen’s second BWF World Tour title since winning the 2019 Indonesia Masters.
In men’s doubles, No. 5 seeds Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England pulled off a strong comeback, rallying from 4-9 in the decider to overcome No. 7 seeds Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov of Russia 20-22, 21-17, 21-18 in 74 minutes.
The Rio Olympic bronze medalists, Chris Langridge/Marcus Ellis became the first English men’s pair in 45 years to win the Denmark Open since David Eddy/Eddy Sutton last won it in 1975.
However, husband and wife mixed doubles pair – World No. 13 Chris Adcock/Gabby Adcock failed to add another trophy to the England team after going down to World No. 17 Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich of Germany 21-18, 11-21, 14-21 in 50 minutes.
