Canada Open: Final Finally ‘Feels Right’
Frederik Sogaard was overcome by emotion after he and Rasmus Kjaer made the YONEX Canada Open 2023 final.
· PREM KUMAR
The world No.38 Danes outlasted Japanese third seeds Akira Koga/Taichi Saito 21-17 14-21 21-19 at the Markin-MacPhail Centre to qualify for the first HSBC BWF World Tour title match of their 15-month partnership.
Asked what the achievement meant, Sogaard, the 2015 World Junior Championships silver medallist with Joel Eipe, took a deep breath to compose himself before replying: “For me, a bit emotional. It’s been a long journey for Rasmus and me. To be here, we had to play a lot of smaller tournaments. This is only our third Super 500, it means a lot.”
Sogaard and Kjaer came together in March 2022, with their debut at the German Open ending in the first round. They won their very next tournament – the Polish Open – before bagging top honours at the lower-tier Dutch, Welsh and Canadian Internationals. This year, they took the Denmark Masters.