Danish treat for local fans

Tuesday May 17, 2005
Danish treat for local fans

By LIM TEIK HUAT
PETALING JAYA: Badminton fans in the northern region are in for a Danish treat next month.

The Denmark men’s badminton team have agreed to play a friendly tie against Malaysia and the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have slated it for June 24 at the Sultan Abdul Halim Stadium in Alor Star.

The BAM secretary, Gangga Rao, said yesterday that the Danes had given a commitment to field their best side in the tie, which will take the Thomas Cup format – three singles and two doubles matches.


KENNETH JONASSEN: The Dane is ranked third in the world in the men's singles.
“We had a discussion with the Danish BA during the Sudirman Cup (world mixed team championships) in Beijing last week,” said Gangga.

“The Danes are interested in playing competitive matches against Malaysia. They have agreed to come here a week before two back-to-back international Open tournaments – in Singapore (June 28-July 3) and Malaysia (July 5-10).

“Denmark were the runners-up in the last Thomas Cup Finals in Jakarta. The tie will serve as a good warm-up for players from both countries ahead of the two Open tournaments and the World Championships.”

For the Opens in Singapore and Malaysia, the players will be out to get good results to improve on their world rankings to get better seedings in the World Championships in Los Angeles.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) will announce the qualifiers for the World Championships on Thursday but the seedings will only be determined by Aug 4.

A joint training session is also expected to take place when the Danes are in Malaysia.

To make the friendly tie more competitive, lucrative prize money will be offered. The Kedah BA have been handed the task to secure sponsors for the match.

The Danish men’s team boast of having good players in both the singles and doubles.

Their current two top singles players are Kenneth Jonassen and Peter-Gade Christensen, who are ranked second and third respectively in the world.

In the doubles, they have three formidable pairs in world number one and Japan Open champions Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen; world number three Jonas Rasmussen-Lars Paaske; and world number six Carsten Mogensen-Boe Mathias.

Gangga said that South Korea had also expressed interest to make a return to Malaysia for another friendly tie later in the year. Two years ago, the Koreans and Malaysians played three friendly ties.

The Malaysian team are currently on a one-week break after their successful campaign to gain promotion to Division One of the Sudirman Cup championships.