Danish players won both singles titles at the Arctic Open in Vantaa, Finland, on Sunday 11 October. Mia Blichfeldt beat top seed Ratchanok Intanon 21-17, 21-13 in the women’s final, and Anders Antonsen saved match points three times before beating Japan’s Yushi Tanaka 16-21, 21-16, 27-25 in the men’s final.
Blichfeldt’s victory was her first over Intanon, a player she had lost to eight times and had admired since childhood. The world No. 15 did not drop a game all week, beating higher-seeded opponents Han Yue and Nozomi Okuhara on the way, the latter 21-11, 21-7 in the semi-finals. The title ended a run without silverware that stretched back to her win at the HYLO Open in October 2025. “I’m so proud of myself,” she said after the final.
The result also capped a recovery from a knee injury that kept her out for four months after the Uber Cup in April. Blichfeldt returned at the BWF World Championships in August, where she lost in the round of 16, and then went back to rehabilitation work before choosing the event in Finland as the stage for her comeback. She described the week as a new feeling in her career and said time away from the sport had forced her to dig deep.
Antonsen reached the final by beating close friend Lee Zii Jia 21-11, 15-21, 21-16 in 78 minutes. The Dane lost his rhythm in the second game and said his coach gave him a blunt talk before the decider, telling him to stop feeling sorry for himself and fight. “It was a tricky one, an emotional rollercoaster ride,” Antonsen said. Lee had come through qualifying, and Antonsen welcomed him back to the top level after their match. Tanaka set up the final with a 21-14, 11-21, 21-16 win over fellow Japanese player Koki Watanabe.
Other Danes went close. Line Christophersen won the first game of her semi-final against Intanon before losing 17-21, 21-10, 21-13, which ruled out an all-Danish women’s final. In men’s doubles, Christian Faust Kjaer and Rasmus Kjaer lost 21-14, 21-16 in the semi-finals to Aaron Tai and Yap Roy King, who went on to win the title in their first tournament as a pair. Chen Fan Shu Tian and Luo Xu Min took the women’s doubles by beating second seeds Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun. The players now move on to the Denmark Open.
