It was a nightmarish early session for higher-seeded pairs in the third round of the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2023, with a few high-profile casualties.

Among those to fall were Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping (No.3) and Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue (7) in mixed doubles, and Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (2) and two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara (4) in women’s doubles.

Another upset loomed, with unseeded Malaysians Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun leading men’s doubles third seeds Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang 14-9 in the third game before they lost their way.

For the home crowd, Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra BØje delivered the big blow, ending the campaign of third seeds Feng/Huang in straight games, 21-15 21-18.

“On home soil, and with so many people watching, it was an amazing experience,” said Boje.

“Obviously a lot of emotions, and a pretty good crowd,” added Christiansen. “We tried to get the good things from the crowd, but we still tried to control our emotions a bit because we need to think pretty hard.”

Denmark had more reason to cheer, with Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen making short work of seventh seeds Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi.

It was a mixed session for Malaysia, with Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei getting the better of seventh seeds Gicquel/Delrue, and Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan taking out two-time world champions Matsumoto/Nagahara.

“We’ve been focusing on these World Championships, because we haven’t had good results in the past few tournaments, there have been ups and downs. So to come to this level in this tournament, we’re excited, but we don’t want to stop,” said Muralitharan.

Baek/Lee Tumble Out

Meanwhile, Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee, who were among the favourites for the title, came up with a strangely subdued performance against Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.

The Koreans, who have been in seven finals this year, looked out of sorts in a 21-12 21-14 crash-landing to Rahayu/Ramadhanti.

“We just didn’t find our game, and we couldn’t adjust to their style,” said Baek. “It didn’t work out. We’d prepared well, we didn’t play in Australia, so we’re not happy to have lost like this. The first half of the year was quite busy, but the second half was similar to everyone else, so I don’t think we were overworked.”

Other Results

In a battle of world champions versus Olympic champions, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik moved one step forward to the defence of their crown beating Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin 21-16 21-18.

Second seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty looked in control all through despite losing the second game to Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin, easing to a 21-15 19-21 21-9 result in an hour.