When All England comes around, a tournament that many players highlight on their calendars, it is always tough when you get drawn against a seeded opponent in the opening round. This is what happened for Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen, who arrived in Birmingham in search of big points for the Olympic qualification campaign.
The fifth-seeded Indonesians, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, are a pair that the new Danish partnership know really well, having played three times already. The Danes came into today with a two to one head to head advantage. Despite this, the Indonesians won in straight games, 21-17, 21-15. Following the match, Boe stated.
-Not to say that they are not a good pair, because they have great quality and deserve the credit, but we know that we should have done better today. We know from our previous wins what standard we are capable of, but it was not there this time.
Currently the number one ranked pair from Denmark, and in pole position to feature in Tokyo 2020, is Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen. There is not long left now in the Olympic qualification period which ends with the European Championships in Kyiv. Speaking about their targets beyond today, Conrad-Petersen said.
-There are a lot of worries and disruption because of the Coronavirus, where it is not even sure if the Olympics will go ahead. For now, we are more looking ahead towards the Thomas Cup which is taking place for the first time on Europe soil, Aarhus, Denmark.
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