Paaske-Rasmussen want to regain winning ways

YONEX-SUNRISE HONG KONG OPEN 2009 - Paaske-Rasmussen want to regain winning ways

The Danes, once again, shone at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium when Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen and Peter Gade qualified for the YONEX-SUNRISE Hong Kong Open men’s doubles and men’s singles final respectively.

“We want the names of Paaske and Rasmussen to be on the winning roll again”. Jonas Rasmussen couldn’t be more explicit on his target together with partner Lars Paaske. It’s been a while since the two Danish veterans have stepped onto the highest podium spot – more than one year exactly as their last success was in Japan in September 2008.

Since then, a semi-final in Korea and Singapore this year, but no chance at clinching a title yet, slipping just outside the top 8 with their younger compatriots Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen stepping in as Denmark’s best pair at the moment.

“We’ve had few bad results lately, especially with our outing at the world championships, but overall, we haven’t lost to weak pairs and we’ve tried to keep strong mentally in order to get back. There are ups and downs but I believe we have shown that we were still up there with the best. And being in the final of a Super Series again feels nice,” explained Jonas Rasmussen.

The duo played an uneven game today, just like their opponents, mainly due to the windy conditions in the hall. “The fans were laughing at us in the first game as we were making easy mistakes, but we have had the experience of such a venue before as we’ve played so many tournaments, that we know that the next game would be easier. Maybe a younger pair would lose its composure, but both pairs knew what it’s like and in the second game it was the Malaysians the fans made fun of,” said Rasmussen, before Paaske added. “Of course, people don’t realize what’s going on on court. The spectators in the hall, but also people at home watching TV, think “what a hell are they doing” ?” laughed Paaske.

And it is exactly what happened, with a clean sweep for Lee Wan Wah/Choong Tan Fook in the first game – 21/13 before the Danes scooped the second one 21/11. “For the third game, it was all about scoring as many points as we could on the bad side, because we knew that we would play on the “small court” after the break,” said Paaske.

“I think the points we scored from 4/10 to 8/10 made a huge difference as we didn’t have so many points to get back even,“ added Rasmussen after winning the third game 21/17.

The Danish duo had been the second good news for Denmark after Peter Gade had already gotten his ticket to the final. He and Kenichi Tago from Japan were expecting a bit of change in the drift as the court position had been changed completely, with the new set up having courts face the other way.

But they probably didn’t expect that much of a change. “It’s the most windy place I’ve played in so far. Just like the most windy days in Singapore. But I know this has to be if we want to play in a reasonable temperature. We just have to get on with it,” said Gade.

“I knew exactly what to do and the thing I avoided was to lose focus. I kept putting pressure on him at all times – this is how I’ve beaten him in the past and I knew I could pull that again today if I remained concentrated,” added gade after winning 21/12 – 21/13 in 35 minutes.

In the whole China affair in the women’s singles, Wang Lin lost to Jiang Yanjiao as the left hander, wearing a fitting purple shirt was more consistent and played around with the drift more than her opponent to clinch the victory 21/18 – 21/14.

The next match got the fans going when Olympic Champions Du Jing and Yu Yang were facing Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui of Malaysia. And the Chinese were not far from bowing to their opponents, when they trailed 18/21 – 15/17. Before the eyes of Gong Ruina – the former World champion, now living in Hong Kong – the Chinese duo hung in there and managed to win the second game and the third, earning their spot in the finals, which had – on Saturday afternoon – been sold out except for a handful of tickets only.