Great Danes on the rampage

GLASGOW, May 30: Denmark claimed four of the eight quarter-final spots in the men's singles at the World Badminton Championships after Pete...

GLASGOW, May 30: Denmark claimed four of the eight quarter-final spots in the men’s singles at the World Badminton Championships after Peter Gade Christensen and Peter Rasmussen scored upset wins.

Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, the No 2 seed, also eased through, and Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen completed the quartet when he gained a walkover following the withdrawal through illness of top seed dong Jiong of China, here yesterday.

Stuer-Lauridsen now meets defending champion Heryanto Arbi from Indonesia for a place in the last four.

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But in the women’s singles it was a Dane who made a shock early exit, with European champion Camilla Martin, the world No 4, going out in three games to China’s Han Jingna.

Gade Christensen, the 20-year-old rising star who defeated Hoyer-Larsen in the Taiwan Open final in January, collected another great scalp when he battled back from dropping the opening game to defeat the number seed from Taiwan, Fung Permadi.

Gade Christensen, who won the Scottish Open last November, made it a happy return to Glasgow with a 9-15 15-7 15-9 victory in exactly one hour.