El Monte: Who would have thought Carsten Mogensen could play competitive badminton again after undergoing a brain surgery to treat ruptured aneurysm in his brain in February. Even more amazing, who would have thought Mogensen and his men’s doubles partner Mathias Boe could make a comeback and win a men’s doubles title again?
All doubts on the World No. 9 pair were laid to rest in the US Open men’s doubles final on Sunday, when the Danish pair who has the full support of the crowd in Los Angeles Badminton Club, cruised past World No. 41 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in straight sets, beating the Japanese pair 21-11, 22-20 in 36 minutes.
Mogensen/Boe were dominant in the first set, leading pretty much the whole set after 5-5 to seal the game 21-11. The crowd seemed to think Mogensen/Boe would win the second set easily when they ran out to a huge lead with 17-9. However, the Danish pair suddenly lost focus and out of nowhere trailed the Japanese pair 18-19 and 20-19. Fortunately, Mogensen/Boe used their experience at critical moments of the match to reel off the next 3 consecutive points to pull off a gutsy come-from-behind win over Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi in the second set.
The US Open was Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe first international title since winning Denmark’s first European Games gold on June of last year at Baku 2015.
In the men’s singles final, veteran from Korea Lee Hyun-il claimed the US Open title after dismissing Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 24-22, 21-8.
In both all-Japanese women’s singles and women’s doubles finals, unseeded Ayumi Mine saw off compatriot Saena Kawakami 16-21,21-11,21-15 to lift the women’s singles title, while No. 4 seeds Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto of Japan survived a hard fought women’s doubles final to overcome Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara 20-22, 21-15, 21-19 in 67 minutes.
Yugo Kobayashi/Wakana Nagahara of Japan produced a stunning display to shock No. 2 seeds Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba of Poland 21-16, 21-18 for the mixed doubles title.
