When superstars Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl hung up their rackets for good earlier last year, Denmark lost its strongest pair in women’s doubles badminton.

The gap between the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalists and their potential successors was quite large.

Recently, however, Denmark has caught a glimpse of a new light, with a promising performance from Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen at last week’s Daihatsu Indonesia Masters badminton tournament in Jakarta.

The world number 30 duo experienced a Cinderella tale in the Super 500 tournament — or grade two — in the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) world tour event. They managed to reach the final round, which was their first experience in the higher level tournament.

The tale ended midway, just as Cinderella’s, when they lost the 2020 Indonesia Masters title to Indonesia’s Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu.

The Danes maintained superb, consistent performances on their way to the final as they stunned two top Japanese pairs, namely Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the second round and 2016 Rio Olympics medal gold medalists Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo in the Saturday’s semifinal.

Thygesen said, “It is hard to find words right now,” knowing the fact that in last year’s contest they would not have even dreamed of reaching the semifinals or final over the weekend in Jakarta.

“So proud of us. Mentally, we kept it all the way through. They [Matsutomo and Takahashi] were quite tough. They played quite well, and they make us work all the time,” said Thygesen.

“[We have] a lot of confidence right now. We knew that we could play along with them if we did our best, so it’s really nice to stand as the winners now. It felt surreal,” Fruergaard added.

Choosing to be brave in attacking their opponents was the key for the Danes’ victory against the Japanese pairs. They had abandoned their old strategy of playing it safe in every match.

“[Keeping the aggression going] is quite important at the end, also combined with being brave. We don’t just play away but we try to attack also from the defense,” said Thygesen.

The Danes had been forcing themselves to be more aggressive on the court as they knew facing a tough opponent like the Japanese pair would require extra work.

During the semifinals, Matsutomo and Takahashi relentlessly pressured the Danes but only to receive a superb counterattack that earned the latter a 22-20, 22-20 victory.

“Do it simply. Move our legs all the time. Move into the shuttle so we don’t stand still. Overdo it,” Fruergaard said, explaining their method to overcome the pressure.

Thygesen and Fruergaard had quite a tough season last year. Their best achievement was reaching the Hong Kong Open’s quarterfinals and the Saarlorlux Open’s semifinals.

The victory over Fukushima and Hirota in the second round gave them the confidence they needed for their fairy tale.

“It’s not that often that we can keep the level now — four matches in a row. Now we have one more. It doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the court. We need to keep the focus on us, and we’ve been doing so well. Mentally we just keep on going,” Thygesen said.

Thygesen and Fruergaard said they did not want to think too much about Denmark’s hopes for them to take the baton from their predecessors, Pedersen and Juhl.

“We are not on the same level as them [Pedersen and Rytter Juhl] when they [retired]. We just know that we have to improve all the time on our game and only think about ourselves instead of thinking about where we are in the world,” said Thygesen.

“We’re just thinking about improving our game all the time instead of being the new Christinna and Kamilla. We try to be the new Sara and Maiken.

“The [Denmark badminton] federation has been hungry to see some more Danes, especially the girls, going on to the weekend. I hope we can do it and keep up the level in the next three months. This is just the beginning,” she said.

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