Denmark men’s doubles shuttlers Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in action against Malaysia’s Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik during the group match of Thomas Cup Finals at Hi-Tech Sports Centre in Chengdu, China on Tuesday. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
CHENGDU: Nothing is going to be handed to them on a silver platter.
Doubles shuttler Anders Skaarup Rasmussen knows that Denmark are the favourites in the quarter-final tie against Taiwan today but he is not prepared to make the mistake of undermining their opponents.
Today, second seeds Denmark led by Rasmussen and his partner Kim Astrup, will cross swords with Taiwan at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center in Chengdu.
Denmark are the favourites to reach the semi-finals.
They had finished top of Group D after beating Malaysia 3-2 in their last group match on Wednesday.
Taiwan were whipped 0-5 by Japan in their last group match and face an uphill battle against the Danes.
Danish veteran Rasmussen said it would not be easy as any team can raise their performance in the knockout stages.
“Finishing top of the group was good for us but all the groups had two top teams and there will be no easy matches in the knockout stage,” said Rasmussen.
“Honestly, there are about eight teams that can go on and win the title and we are one of them, so we are not going to underestimate anyone.”
World No. 4 Astrup-Rasmussen, who were part of the team that captured the title in 2016 in Kunshan, China, know that they need to be on top of their game to overcome reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin in the first doubles.
Denmark do hold the advantage in the singles with world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen, world No. 4 Anders Antonsen and Rasmus Gemke (No. 26), who are all unbeaten in the tournament so far.Taiwan on the other hand will be banking on world No. 14 Chou Tien-chen, world No. 17 Lin Chun-yi and Wang Tzu-wei (No. 23).
In the second doubles, world No. 18 Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard will likely be fielded against world No. 12 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan.
The winning team will take on Indonesia or South Korea for a place in the final.
