When Mads Vestergaard steps onto the court at Jyske Bank Arena in Odense for this year’s VICTOR DENMARK OPEN, it will mark the first time a Danish audience sees him compete at such a high level on home soil. It’s an event that not only the crowd can look forward to – Vestergaard himself has been eagerly awaiting this debut for a long time.
He said, “It’s something you watch as a young player and think, wow, I want that to be me someday, competing in front of this Danish audience. So, it means a lot to be able to participate.”
The twenty-two-year-old Dane, who competes in both mixed doubles with Christine Busch and men’s doubles with Daniel Lundgaard, has already claimed titles at the Scottish Open, Estonian Challenge, Polish Open, and Abu Dhabi Masters. In February, Vestergaard was awarded Comet of the Year 2023 by Badminton Denmark’s sports management. Now, at this year’s VICTOR DENMARK OPEN, he can add participation in a Super 750 tournament on home soil to his résumé.
He added, “It means a lot to be able to compete on home soil in such a big tournament. It’s only in the last year that we’ve started to compete in tournaments at this level.”
While Mads Vestergaard has only just begun to take on bigger tournaments, he has already managed to achieve great results. In June 2024, Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch reached the semi-finals at the Super 750 tournament Singapore Open.
“I think we’re in a good place right now,” said Mads Vestergaard. “Towards the end of the summer, we made significant progress, playing some excellent matches in Singapore. In men’s doubles, I helped defeat the world number one, and Christine and I reached the semi-finals in mixed doubles. So, I’d say we have a stronger belief that, on our best days, when everything is right, we can challenge and also beat some of the very best.”
Vestergaard is well aware that moving up to bigger tournaments means being challenged in new ways. Suddenly, he and his partners are entering tournaments unseeded, often facing higher-ranked opponents. This shift has influenced how he approaches each match.
He said, “It’s a somewhat different way of approaching tournaments now, knowing that if you’re not at one hundred percent and performing at your absolute best, you probably won’t win the matches.”
Vestergaard highlights the pace among top competitors in mixed doubles as a particular challenge:
“They’re incredibly fast, especially the Asians are extremely fast and often hit with great force. We talk a lot about how important it is to adapt to the fact that when we play against the best, the matches move at a very fast pace.”
Regardless of how Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch perform against some of the world’s best mixed doubles competitors at the Victor Denmark Open, making their debut is undoubtedly a significant milestone for the young Dane.
“I guess you could call it a small dream. And not everyone gets to experience it. After all, you need to be ranked in the top thirty-two in the world to qualify for the tournament. So, it means a lot, and it’s one of the tournaments I’m probably looking forward to the most. It’s the kind of tournament you count down to a little more than usual because it has such big significance.”
