Odense: The men’s singles No. 1 seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and women’s singles No. 1 seed Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan both won their first round matches at the Denmark Open Super 750 World Tour competition at the Odense Sports Park on Wednesday.
Axelsen who are bidding to win his first ever Denmark Open title, dominated in the afternoon by defeating Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai 21-12, 21-19 in 40 minutes to set up a second round meeting with compatriot Anders Antonsen.
This was Axelsen’s third career win over Sakai with the Japanese winning their previous two encounters.
Despite fighting back from 2-10 to take the lead at 18-16 in the decider, Malaysia’s Daren Liew couldn’t extend his third winning streak over Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan, going down to Tsuneyama in a three-set thriller 15-21, 21-12, 20-22.
In the women’s competition, Tai Tzu Ying moved on to the second round after strong performance. Tai defeated Sayaka Takahashi of Japan soundly 21-14, 21-15 to take on Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand on Thursday.
Men’s doubles No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia survived a strong challenge, keeping alive their hopes of winning the Denmark Open by overcoming He Jiting/Tan Qiang of China 21-19, 22-20.
Gideon/Sukamuljo will meet Mark Lamsfuss/Marvin Emil Seidel of Germany in the last 16.
