Rice leads the way at Denmark Open
Author: Badminton England
Date: 03 Nov 2006
Category: Tournament Results
Nathan Rice was England's first-day hero at the Denmark Open when the world No 82 followed up his ASICS National Elite win in Sussex at the weekend by beating Dutch No 1 and world No 13 Eric Pang 21-18 9-21 21-17 in Aarhus last night.
European junior champion Rajiv Ouseph, up to 59 in the world rankings, also pulled off a good first-round win by beating Germany's Marcel Reuter 21-16 21-9.
And Sussex runner-up Toby Honey pressed Denmark's seeded Joachim Persson all the way in losing 21-12 19-21 21-16 in the opening round of the men's singles.
National champion Nick Kidd, the world No 46, went down 21-19 21-17 to Kenneth Jonassen in the Dane's comeback event after a knee injury kept him out of last month's world championships.
Former National champion Aamir Ghaffar, who is world No 73, lost to Muhammad Roslin Hashim of Malaysia 21-8 21-7
National runner-up Jill Pittard and 2005 National champion Elizabeth Cann were in women's singles action today.
The mixed doubles first round was the only other action on day one with Robin Middleton and Liza Parker beating German pair Tim Dettman and Annekatrin Lillie 21-18 22-20 to join world champions Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms and Madrid runners-up Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg among England contenders in the second round.
But Chris Tonks and Natalie Munt lost out to Denmark's Jens Eriksen and Lena Frier Kristiansen 13-21 21-9 21-9 while Chris Langridge and Jenny Day went down in straight games against Jacob Chemnitz and Julie Houmann of Denmark 21-13 21-17.
