Denmark cruise past Scandinavian rivals Sweden in Thomas Cup to close in on group win

Anders Antonsen had no problems in his clash against Sweden's Gustav Björkler.
Anders Antonsen had no problems in his clash against Sweden's Gustav Björkler.Credit: ALBERTO DIAZ / EPA / Profimedia

Denmark's badminton men had no major problems defeating Sweden at the Thomas Cup - the men's team world championship. On Sunday evening, Denmark took a 3-0 lead after the first three matches, and thus the victory was secured before the last two matches.

When the last two matches were played, Denmark had secured an overall 4-1 win. 

On Friday, Denmark defeated South Korea, so things are looking quite promising for the Danes in the four-nations group, which also includes Taiwan, where two nations advance to the quarterfinals.

In the first match, Anders Antonsen won his match in the men's singles over Gustav Björkler with a scoreline of 21-18, 21-11.

Björkler, however, had no intentions of throwing in the towel from the start in the first set in particular, and Antonsen had to find his best game to take the opening set.

There was less excitement in the second set, where Antonsen dominated to a greater extent and showed the difference in class.

In the second match, the men's doubles pairing of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup won in two sets over Jesper Borgstedt and Joel Hansson, 21-10, 21-8 in just 23 minutes.

Anders Skaarup, who was replaced by Mathias Christiansen against South Korea, was back with his familiar partner with success.

In the third match, Magnus Johannesen won in two sets over Kim Linell, and that secured the overall victory over the Swedes.

Magnus Johansen won the match with 21-8, 21-16. After that, the Danish winning streak stopped, and Sweden managed to cut the deficit without being able to change the overall defeat.

The men's doubles with Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard surprisingly lost 12-21, 14-21 to Ludwig Axelsson and Filip Karlborg.

In the last match in men's singles, Ditlev Jaeger Holm won 21-18, 21-11 over Romeo Makboul.