Odense: Overwhelming favorite in women’s singles, the Rio Olympic gold medalist Carolina Marin of Spain began her quest for her first title in 2020 at the Denmark Open, in Odense.
This 2020 Denmark Open was a unique competition with only 500 spectators allowed in the stadium has gotten underway in a COVID-19 quarantine bubble at Odense Sports Park. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first BWF World Tour event after 213 days have passed since the All England final on March 15, 2020.
The former World No. 1 Marin headlined the opening day of a BWF World Tour Super 750 event that promised to be unlike any other and which was missing several top players, including Kento Momota (men’s singles), and Tai Tzu Ying (women’s singles) due to coronavirus fears.
Marin took on unheralded Natalia Perminova of Russia in the first round encounter and needed only 28 minutes to take care of the Russian player 21-7, 21-15.
“I am excited to be back on the court. Of course, we’ll need to take good care of our health. Enjoying the tournament and getting back the competition feeling is important,” said Marin.
“I was not on my best today, but I will do more training tomorrow to get ready for Thursday’s match,” added Marin.
Marin will face Line Christophersen of Denmark in the second round.
Meanwhile, women’s singles No. 6 seed Zhang Beiwen of USA also made short work of Ann-Kathrin Spori of Germany, as Zhang outlasted Spori 21-9, 21-11 to set up a second-round meeting with Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia.
