El Monte: Top seeds Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe Denmark survived a major scare in the second round of US Open to avoid an early exit on Thursday.
Former World No. 1 men’s doubles pair Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe who are using the US Open as a tune-up event before the Olympics, were dominant against Hiroyuki Saeki/Ryota Taohata of Japan by winning the first set 21-12.
However, the Danish pair was struggling and was trying to mount a comeback at the end of second set but eventually went down to the Japanese pair 18-21.
In the tense third set, Mogensen/Boe failed to convert 2 match points by allowing Saeki/Taohata to tie the decider at 20-20. Mogensen/Boe then showed their classes by claiming the next 2 consecutive points to seal the victory in 64 minutes.
Mogensen/Boe will take on another Japanese pair Taiki Shimada/Yoshinori Takeuchi in the quarter-finals on Friday.
In women’s singles competition, last week’s Canada Open champion Michelle Li needed 35 minutes to beat Canadian qualifier Tai Yi 21-12, 22-20 to set up a quarter-final clash with American shutter Zhang Beiwen next.
The US Open offered total prize money of $120,000. The event had been held in Long Island, New York for the past two years before returning to the Los Angeles/Southern California area in 2016.
