Denmark Open: Gemke Heroic in Defeat to Antonsen
It says something about a match when both combatants leave the arena unable to walk.
· DEV SUKUMAR
At the end of the 74-minute men’s singles final of the DANISA Denmark Open 2020, Anders Antonsen and Rasmus Gemke were left battered and bruised and heavily cramping from their exertions. Antonsen was the winner, but only just. The 18-21 21-19 21-12 result made him the first Danish men’s singles winner in a decade.
Record and form favoured Antonsen, but it was Gemke who set off the fireworks. Taking the initiative and firing fierce and precise smashes, Gemke had Antonsen scrambling all over. The third seeded Antonsen, feeling the pressure of being the favourite, somehow never seemed his fluid self; Gemke was setting the pace and Antonsen was only reacting.
The challenger did brilliantly to erase a four-point deficit midway through the second game; at 19-all the match was poised on a razor edge. Gemke spotted an opening deep in his opponent’s backhand corner but the shuttle missed the line by a whisker; on the next point he smashed wide to help Antonsen level it at a game apiece.