CATEGORY | WOMEN’S DOUBLES
A WEALTH OF CONTENDERS FOR THE WOMEN’S DOUBLES Over the course of 2017 there has only been one women’s doubles pair who have won more than one Superseries or Superseries Premier title. This means that there are a lot of pairs competing for the major titles. BY S T I N E G R E V E
The only pair to win more than one title so far in 2017 is Japanese Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi. On equal terms with both Korean Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee and Danish Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen they’ve been in three finals, but where the Japanese have managed to win two titles both the Koreans and the Danes have had to settle for only one title each. The Superseries circuit kicked off in 2017 with the Superseries Premier tournament All England in March. Danes Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen had played their way into the final, but were defeated by Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee from Korea. The Koreans thus had the perfect start to 2017, but had to wait until June before they saw another final. Otherwise, it went well for the powerful Danish women’s doubles. About a month after the disappointing defeat in the All England final, Juhl/Pedersen would stand at the top of the winners’ podium after having triumphed in Singapore Open. Thereby, securing their first title of the season, having beaten the reigning Olympic champions Misaki Matsutomo/ Ayaka Takahashi in the final. At Indonesia Open, Chang/Lee were once again contenders, but this time they had to accept a defeat in the final to Chinese pair Chen Quingchen/Jia Yifan, who thus won their first women’s doubles title of 2017. The last tournament before the summer break and the World Championships in Glasgow was Australian Open at the end of June, and here we saw a rematch: for the second time in just a few months, Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen were competing against the formidable Japanese pair, Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi in a final.
The Japanese were hoping to avenge their previous loss and win their first title of 2017, and after a convincing performance in the final, they succeeded in both. Thereby, preventing the Danes from scooping their second title of the season. When the players returned after the World Championships, there were still two Superseries tournaments to go before we reached Odense and DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR. First Korea Open, before the tour moved onto Japan and Japan Open. In Korea home ground favourites Chang Ye Na/ Lee So Hee made it into their third final this year. But for the second time in a row they had to settle for second place, as Chinese Huang Yaqiong/Yu Xiaohan turned out to be too big a handful for the Koreans. In Japan Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi seemed determined to give their home crowd a title to celebrate and with that being the first pair in women’s doubles to win title number two in 2017. This became a reality as they defeated Korean Kim Ha Na/Hee Yong Kong in the final. Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi are thereby the most wining pair in women’s doubles so far in 2017, but they are only one title ahead of their closest rivals. It will be most exciting to see whether or not Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen can equal the scores on home court here in Odense – the crowd will most definitely cheer them on in order to do so.