Defending champion Joergensen eases into Copenhagen

Danish title holder and defending champion Jan Oe. Joergensen had no trouble whatsoever beating Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana in Thursday's men's singles semifinals of this year's badminton Copenhagen Masters. Joergensen was totally superior from the very first rally and showed no signs of weakness throughout as he stormed into a two-set victory of 21-9, 21-11. Prior to the match, Joergensen had talked about the instability of his Thai opponent, currently ranked 15th in the world, saying Ponsana had the ability both to perform admirably and almost not show up for his matches. This was to be an almost sad demonstration of the latter as Ponsana was no way near the level of Jorgensen, currently world No. 11 in the world. The match, played in Copenhagens Falconer Salen, lasted little more than half an hour. Joergensen raced into an early lead and never let go of his grip. The 24-year-old Dane dominated play with powerful smashes and smart little dropshots. Meanwhile Ponsana made a number of unforced errors and was generally too passive and too easy to figure out for Jorgensen who won the first set comfortably 21-9. Joergensen continued dominance in the second set and quickly took a 5-1 lead. The dane dictated play as he had done so far and he was even lucky with a ball which rolled on the net and landed on the Thai's court, making the score 8-3. The Thai's serve was generally not long enough, allowing Joergensen to get on the offensive and thus in control. This earned the Dane quite a number of points and he controlled the rallies with great variation, going both long and short, cross court and long line, and creating a 15-6 lead. Ponsana looked very shaky and besides himself. Only at 20-8 and match point did Joergensen show glimpses of nerves and actually missed three of them before finishing off Ponsana. The victory also gave Joergensen a 5-1 overall lead head to head against Ponsana. Showing signs of superiority, even in speech, Joergensen said to reporters: "There wasn't too much fattening Christmas food in my legs today. Instead I had Thai food for dinner yesterday. It turned out to be a really good training match for me." Joergensen will meet either compatriot Viktor Axelsen or Yun Hu of Hong Kong, China in the final. Meanwhile, the reigning mixed doubles Copenhagen Masters champions of the last two years, Christinna Pedersen and Joakim Fischer, are on the road to making it three times in a row. The Danish duo, who recently won the Super Series championship in China and took the bronze medal in this year's London Olympics, easily defeated Indonesian couple Shendy Puspa Irawati and Fran Kurniawan in straight sets 21-10, 21-12 in their semifinal on Thursday. The third and last semifinal on Friday was a men's doubles encounter. Top ranked pair in the world, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, were up against Ricky Karanda Suwardi and Muhammed Ulinnuha of Indonesia. The Danish pair are the defending Copenhagen Masters champions as well as winners of this year's China Open and Super Series. They also took silver medal in the London Olympics. Needless to say, Boe and Mogensen were huge favorites against their young Indonesian opponents and were clear winners in straight sets, 21-5, 22-20. This means that all three of Friday's finals will have Danish participation.