Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie‘s quest for consecutive BWF World Tour badminton titles continued apace on Thursday (16 October) with a second-round win at the 2025 Denmark Open.
The sixth seed defeated Japan’s Naraoka Kodai in straight sets, 21–7, 21–13, in Odense to reach his fourth quarter-final of the World Tour season.
Christie, who won the Korea Open at the end of September in his previous action on the circuit, took 41 minutes to dispatch his Japanese opponent and book a quarter-final meeting with Li Shifeng.
However, much of the attention at Jyske Bank Arena was on the match between No. 2 seeded Anders Antonsen and the unseeded Indian Lakshya Sen.
Antonsen had warned of the competitive nature of men’s singles in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, but even he couldn’t have expected to foreshadow his own comeuppance in such a poetic fashion, falling to Sen in straight sets, 21–13, 21–14.
It was an outcome that left the Danish crowd stunned, but not without hope, as two-time Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen fought hard to stay alive against Japan’s Tanaka Yushi.
Emerging victorious from the three set thriller, 11–21, 21–19, 24–22, the Danish superstar advanced to the quarter-finals, where he’ll face the mighty Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Meanwhile, women’s world number one An Seyoung continued her streak this season of reaching at least the last eight in each of her tournaments played.
An took 49 minutes to see off a spirited challenge from Japan’s Nidaira Natsuki 21–18, 21–11.
Her next opponent will be another Japanese, Miyazaki Tomoka; if she gets that far, a third Japanese rival could await in the last four: world champion Yamaguchi Akane.
Selected rounds of the Denmark Open are available to stream live Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app (territorial restrictions may apply).