2 minute read
Women’s Doubles
By Ronni Burkal Elkjær
Japan and Korea have dominated women’s doubles the last years, but Denmark’s assistant national coach Jesper Hovgaard sees signs of countries going in another direction.
- Women’s doubles are a game of patience because it’s hard to finish the points. I see it as a physical demanding category. You need to hit the shuttle many times, it takes a lot of endurance and keeping the mistakes away from the game.
- Korea and Japan are sitting on the throne in women’s doubles, and they have done so for many years. It’s no coincidence. - They are extremely skilled players and hard to score points against. Often the pairs hit as hard as they can, but with a low risk. They don’t want to force anything. Their mindset is to get the ball across the net as many times as possible and drain their opponents’ powers.
- For me the exciting thing is a lot of pairs has become more aggressive than before. We are focusing more on how to win points in counterattack. I think it will be necessary to beat the world’s best doubles. Otherwise, it will be too difficult to win if you have to play long rallies to gain every point against them.
- That is also why a match between Korea and Japan differs from a match between Denmark and Japan. We want to do more in the defense, than when those two nations meet each other. I think, we also
invest more in the serve situation and the return phase, where it’s more technical.
- That being said, globally there are examples of some extremely good players in women’s doubles. I want to praise some of them. Amongst other two women from China. Du Yue and Li Yinhui. They are not very big and strong like the Korean and Japanese pairs. - They have also realized they can’t hit the shuttle to the floor against Japan and Korea. Instead, they are inviting the opponents to play in the center of the court, where it gets more technical. That’s very exciting, and I am really inspired by how China has taken a different approach.
- I don’t think, they get enough credit for that. Speaking generally. The category suffer of the premise, that the defense is often stronger than the offense.
- So, I really want to highlight those couples, who are taking another path and focusing on getting the play more technical. They want to find out how to lure the opponents, so it doesn’t end in a rally, where it is offense vs defense.
- I think the defense isn’t just about returning the shuttle. But also, to create something. I hope that the category moves in that direction and becomes even more technical. ■
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