Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje celebrate their victory over China's Yan Zhe Fang and Dong Ping Huang during the mixed doubles match as part of the Badminton BWF World Championships at the Adidas Arena in Paris. - Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
PETALING JAYA: Danish shuttler Mathias Christiansen has returned stronger than ever after a one-year ban from competitions due to a doping offence.
On Wednesday (Aug 27), Christiansen and Alexandra Boje pulled off the biggest shock in the mixed doubles in the World Championships when they sent China's world No. 1 Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping packing in the second round.
Christiansen-Boje superbly came from behind to prevail 14-21, 21-13, 21-18 in an energy sapping 82-minute battle at the Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle in Paris on Wednesday.
The Danish pair repeated their feat in the last edition of the prestigious meet in 2023 in Copenhagen where they also toppled Yanzhe-Dongping in the same round.
The win meant that Christiansen-Boje have continued their impressive run after capturing the Macau Open earlier this month in what was their first outing together after a year.
"It feels incredible to win, especially such a tight game. We are very happy and relieved that we got the win," Christiansen told the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
"A lot of fans in the stadium were cheering for us and it motivated us. The Chinese pair had trouble getting the shuttle down and our defense worked well.
"We had a good training year from my side and we have been practicing together for three months.
"We have this very good win in Macau, so obviously we have some confidence," added Christiansen.
Boje said that the win over Yanzhe-Dongping in 2023 gave her and Christiansen belief that they could do it again.
"We believed we could beat them. We also beat them two years ago and we've been playing quite well.
"We are still getting going after our year away from tournaments but we believed in it.
"We knew they are the world's best and it was going to be close. We needed to play our very best. I'm so happy we did that and won."
Christiansen-Boje's victory over the title favourites has thrown the competition wide open.
The Danes are looking to continue their fine form when they play another Chinese pair, world No. 12 Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi next for a place in the quarter-finals.
