Rikke Søby started to play badminton when she was just five years old in Greve, Denmark. Today she is 25 and one of Denmark’s upcoming mixed doubles player partnering with Mathias Bay-Smidt. 

Søby also played the women’s doubles before, but we have to go back to June 2019 to find the last international tournament where Søby played with her former partner, Sara Lundgaard. Now she is focusing on mixed doubles with Bay-Smidt. 

- I am fine with only playing mixed doubles at the moment. That is where I see my biggest chance for becoming a really good player, so I am happy to focus 100% on that. 

Even though it has been about 12 months since Søby last played women’s doubles internationally, the Dane still likes to practice the women’s doubles once in a while. 

- I have had a lot of injuries throughout my career, so I think it is best for my body to only play one category, but I am okay with that. I still practice women’s doubles a couple of times a week, and it adds something else to my game. 

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The next big mixed woman

Søby and Bay-Smidt had a good 2019 winning Swiss Open and reaching the final at Finnish Open, Spanish International and Scottish Open. After these results Søby and Bay-Smidt have caught more people’s attention. Explaining what Søby thinks about that fact, she says. 

- I am happy that more people have paid attention to Mathias and me after we delivered some good results.  Even though there has not been the biggest change, so it is not something I think about on a daily basis. 

Denmark has had a lot of successful mixed doubles women through the years. Mette Schjoldager, Lene Køppen, Marlene Thomsen, Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen to name a few. These women all won either an Olympic medal or became World Champions in mixed doubles. Asking Søby if she thinks she could be the next one, she says. 

- At the moment we are a group of mixed doubles women, who have the same level, but I hope that I can develop enough to be the next big female mixed player. That is for sure one of my goals. 

Read: Felix Burestedt: I have belief in myself

Having faith

Two women, who really made an impression, were Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl. They achieved a lot of things through their career and are two of the recent big female stars, and Søby knows that she needs to improve to reach their level. 

- There are a lot of things I need to improve that I work with at practice every day. I hope, that at one point I can reach a level which is high enough to achieve some of the results that Pedersen and Juhl have achieved, the 2019 Swiss Open winner stated.

- It was huge for me to win the Swiss Open last year, so I already feel like I have won a big tournament. It is hard to say which tournament will be the next, but I have faith that we will get to win tournaments at a higher level that Super 300.