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Antonsen defeat completes Danish disaster at All England

Antonsen was forced to leave All England already in the second round
Antonsen was forced to leave All England already in the second roundCHENG YIHENGXINHUAXinhua via AFP
No Danes were able to make it to the quarter-finals of the Super Series All England tournament in Birmingham as Anders Antonsen was the last remaining Dane to crash out when he lost 10-21, 13-21 to Tzu Wei Wang from Taiwan

The biggest problem for Antonsen was that he repeatedly played too short giving Wei Wang a chance to dominate play from the start.

At the same time the Taiwanese played almost flawlessly and punished the Dane with aggressive shots.

Antonsen changed his racket when he fell behind 0-4 in the first set and it seeemed to help for a short while as he was able to level the game before Wang upped the pace again.

Antonsen was trailing 10-18 when he approached the referee to remove something in one of his shoes, which was "very painful".

Wang suffered a torn ankle in the second set, and although he appeared to be in pain, he continued to drive Antonsen from side to side. 

Antonsen got a lifeline when he won four successive points to reduce the deficit to 8-11 in the second set. 

But subsequently, Wang had to put a band-aid on a finger on his right hand several times, and with the repeated pauses, Antonsen's momentum was broken.

There was way no back for Antonsen who were taught a lesson and crashed out as the last Dane in the tournament.