The World Championships 2014 have begun, and apparently not only the journalists were alone with their enthusiasm at the opening day of the Championships. The supporters in the arena provided the atmosphere with lots of chants for both the Danish and international players. Also the players showed great spirit in their opening games.
Here is a short overview of Day 1:
Men's Singles:
The most prominent players are all through to secound round after the first day. Lee Chon Wei, Jan Ø. Jørgensen and Wang Zhengming all defeated their opponents without excessive effort. Also Danish shooting star Viktor Axelsen had a good grip on his first opponent, Swedish Henri Hurskainen, which compelled big applauses from the home crowd. Still a few small surprises took place in the men's singles category. 13th seed japanese Kento Momota lost in three games to Nan Wei.
Click here to see a more detailed report from the game.
Also the winner of this year’s Commenwealth Games, Kashyap Parapalli from India, exits the tournament after only one game. He lost a very close, but entertaining match against German Dieter Domke.
Women’s Singles:
All the top favourites in Women's Singles haven’t been playing at the first tournament day in Ballerup. Most remarkable is perhaps the two young Danes, Anna Thea Madsen and Line Kjærsfeldt, whom both succeeded their matches and went through to second round.
Mixed Doubles:
The seeded players haven’t made their entrance to the tournament yet. Robert Mateusiak and his new partner Agnieszka Wojtkowska were defeated. The biggest applause came after one of the first matches, where Danish Anders Kristiansen threw his t-shirt out to the fans to celebrate his win with Julie Houmann. Maybe we can expect another celebration from his side later on in the tournament - like the one Poul-Erik Høyer made after his Olympic victory in 1996.
Women’s Doubles:
The two Bulgarian Stoeva sisters were beaten by a constellation from Chinese Taipei in three games. The two siblings aren't the only one with family bonds at the Championships –
read more here:
Men's Doubles:
For the spectators who stayed in Ballerup Super Arena just until late, there was quite a dessert waiting. The Danish double constellation Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding were up against reigning European Champions, Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov from Russia. After two very enthusiastic games the Danes came out as winners. Another Danish double, Anders Skaarup Rasmussen og Kim Astrup Sørensen suffered a defeat from their two oppenents from Chinese Taipei.