Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund continued to make big strides in their budding partnership, winning their third tournament in six months, at the HYLO Open 2024.

The Danes, who came together in June and won their first tournament together, were in their fourth final.

The third seeds had to fight off a stiff challenge from Scotland’s Alexander Dunn/Julie Macpherson in the opening game, coming through winners at 21-18 21-16.

“It’s crazy that we have three titles, it’s unbelievable,” said Magelund. “It was close and lot of nerves in there. There was a lot in the service situations, the pair that got the first lift often won, and that was the key. We can take so much for the next tournament. We’re really proud of this. You can see that on court and also when we’re a bit down, we know we can do it, and that’s why we get these matches.”

Denmark won two of three finals, with Mia Blichfeldt winner her second title of the year. Incidentally, both were in Germany as her first came at the YONEX German Open.

Blichfeldt ran into a strong challenge in the second game from India’s Malvika Bansod, who was looking for her first Super 300 title. The Dane managed to find the right game to stop the Indian 21-10 21-15.

“I didn’t go into this tournament with confidence, but I definitely scored a lot on that,” said Blichfeldt. “I aimed at a high level and feel good with the team behind me. I feel I played better and better each round and I have gained a lot of confidence.

“In the second game she stepped up and she started to play four corners and I started to attack too much. I needed to adjust and play more four corners with her, and in the end it was pure fighting.”

The men’s singles final saw Christo Popov beat older brother Toma Junior to take his second title of the year after the German Open.

“There is definitely mixed feelings, because you don’t want to win against your brother. But obviously I’m happy from my side, personally as a player. It’s my second win at the Super 300, it’s good for the confidence, it’s good for the points and it’s good to have wins from good matches, and I didn’t lose a game,” said Christo.

Other Highlights

Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova/Yevheniia Kantemyr fell short of winning the first World Tour title for their country as they were outplayed by Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun/Yu Chien Hui. In the process, Sung/Yu won their own first World Tour title together, with the 21-16 21-14 result.

Men’s doubles top seeds Ben Lane/Sean Vendy won their second tournament of the year after the Swiss Open, beating second seeds Rasmus Kjaer/Frederik Sogaard in the closest match of the day, 18-21 21-15 21-18.

What They Said

“She’s a really patient runner and she has some good shots from the back and she can play really short in front of you. So I told her she needed to teach me that, and she told me I had to teach her some smashes, so maybe we can swap a little bit.” – Mia Blichfeldt

“We are at a career high right now, we are at No.12. We’ve had two titles this year. Standing on top of the podium is why we started this sport, and it pushes us to be better. We take a lot of confidence from this.” – Sean Vendy

“They know how to play long and without mistakes, so it’s a different style from the Europeans. They were managing the court well. They did something more than us. We are very confident with ourselves moving forward in both disciplines. I’m looking forward to more and more and I hope you will see us more.” – Polina Buhrova

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