After three days of world class badminton in Odense, European badminton has to put all it's hopes on two title candidates. One of them is the French mixed double Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue and the other one is, once again, Viktor Axelsen.
The Dane played his countryman Rasmus Gemke in the round of 16 this evening. And for the first time in a while it looked like Axelsen would actually lose a game. That hasn't happened since his clash with Jonatan Christie at the Malaysia Open in July. Back in Kuala Lumpur Axelsen eventually won the match 21-15 20-22 21-11 and continued to win the tournament in the end.
In today's second game Gemke was already leading 13-9 before Axelsen stepped up his game to win it 21-19. "Rasmus played a really strong game today, I think. He was physically strong and played with a really good attack. So it was hard for me in there but I'm really happy that I managed to step up and win it in straight games", said Axelsen.
Tomorrow he will play his good friend Loh Kean Yew from Singapore. It's the matchup of the reigning and the former World Champion. The last time both met on court was in the first round of the World Championships 2021 when Loh Kean Yew stunned the badminton world with an unexpected victory over Axelsen.
"We love playing in Odense"
Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue advanced to the quarterfinals with a win against Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo from Japan. The French had a good start into the match taking the first game 21-15. The second game turned out to be a wild rollercoaster ride. Gicquel/Delrue first had a 10-3 lead, then found themselves trailing 13-17. They ended the game with a strong run to win 23-21.
"We feel good on court. We enjoy the game and like to play in Odense", said Delphine Delrue after earning the first European victory of the day that was loudly celebrated by the Danish crowd.
In the quarterfinal they will play against the mixed doubles world champions Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong from China. A tough yet not impossible task for the French duo. Zheng/Huang already stumbled in the round of 16 when they barely won against Mikkel Mikkelsen and Rikke Søby from Denmark 21-10 19-21 21-19.
Find all results from the round of 16
here.
The quarterfinals at the Denmark Open start Friday at 12:00PM.