Denmark progressed to the quarter-finals of the Sudirman Cup despite losing to Indonesia 2-3 on Wednesday. Indonesia - a former champion in this competition - finished third in group 1D and did not qualify for the last 8 stage of the official mixed team world championships in Australia.

Denmark had six and India five points which secured them the quarterfinals spots - while Indonesia, the 1989 champion, collected a total of four winning points and failed to reach the quarterfinals stage.

Besides Denmark and India, Taiwan and South Korea of Group 1A, China and Thailand of Group 1B, as well as Japan and Malaysia of Group 1C have also reached the quarterfinals.

„What a crazy match …“

„What a crazy team match against Indonesia, lasted almost six hours and we have to dig really deep to win the two matches needed to top the group. We played Kevin/Markus after being 0-2 down, and in a crazy match we won 23-21 in third game“, wrote doubles star Mathias Boe on his official Facebook page.

Debby Susanto and Praveen Jordan gave Indonesia the perfect start to the tie as they won 21-12, 21-13 in the mixed doubles against Christinna Pedersen and Joachim Fischer. Indonesia’s hopes stayed alive when 20-year-old Anthony Sinisuka Ginting claimed a shock 13-21, 21-17, 21-14 win over 2016 European Champion Viktor Axelsen.

Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe brought Denmark back into the tie by winning a thrilling men’s doubles rubber 16-21, 24-22, 23-21 against Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon.

Fitriani Fitriani won a gruelling women’s singles match 22-24, 21-15, 21-14 against Mia Blichfeldt to give Indonesia a 3-1 lead.

They would be denied a 4-1 victory and a quarter-final place, when Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Pedersen won 21-18, 13-21, 21-13 in the women’s doubles over Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu

Denmark will be up against Thailand, who were outplayed by record winner China 5-0 on Wednesday and finished second in group 1A.

“I think we have a good chance of winning the match against Thailand but, as you can see from today, all matches are going to be close. Most teams will have to fight for every match we play. We cannot say anything for certain,” said Denmark’s team manager and technical director, Jens Meibom to bwfbadminton.com. 

Sudirman Cup quarter-finals:

Denmark - Thailand
Korea - Taiwan
Japan - Malaysia
China - India

CLICK HERE for all results of the BWF Total Sudirman Cup.

Article by Manuel Rösler. Photo by BadmintonPhoto (LIVE).