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Gade Wins Copenhagen Masters
Denmark's former world number one Pete Gade-Christensen ended 2008 on a winning note when he claimed the Copenhagen Masters title in front of his home crowd.
The 31-year-old Dane had to work hard to win the tournament, which had a select but strong field of European and Asian players.
In the final, he beat compatriot Kenneth Jonassen 21-14, 21-15 in only 31 minutes. In fact, Denmark dominated the event by winning all three titles on offer with All England champion Tine Rasmussen winning the women's singles and the men's doubles going to Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen.
The tournament featured just those three events, each competition having six players or teams.
In the round-robin stages, Gade-Christensen beat Joachim Persson 21-17, 20-22, 21-12 and Malaysia's Wong Choong Hann 21-7, 21-19 in Group 2 to advance to the final.
With only one player qualifying for the final from each pool, it appeared that Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncuro would easily win Group 1.
However, he was beaten 21-17, 21-15 by Jonassen, who also defeated Przemyslaw Wacha 21-17, 21-14 to win the group.
Rasmussen won Group 1 in the women's singles with victories over Adriyanti Firdasari (22-20, 21-14) and Judith Meulendijks (21-17, 21-14).
Her opponent in the final was Germany's Xu Huaiwen, who beat Pi Hongyan 15-21, 21-12, 21-19 and Nanna Brosolat Jensen 21-10, 21-10 in Group 2.
In a fairly routine final, Rasmussen triumphed 21-18, 21-17 in 36 minutes.
The major shock of the tournaments came in the men's doubles with Olympic champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, of Indonesia, suffering two stunning defeats.
First, they lost to Group 1 winners Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-17, 21-15 before falling 21-8, 21-17 to Michal Logosz and Robert Mateusiak.
Paaske and Rasmussen won Group 2 by handing out defeats to Malaysia's Mak Hee Chun 21-15, 21-16 and Ruud Bosch and Koen Ridder 21-12, 21-15.
The final was a tense affair that went to three games and lasted 57 minutes. In the end, Paaske and Rasmussen emerged with a 14-21, 21-13, 21-19 victory.
Their victory was the last international match of the year and brought the curtain down on the 2008 season.
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