Sports News in Brief: Wozniacki doubtful about Olympic participation

Elsewhere, Denmark handball gents living up to expectations, Frederik Andersen wins NHL accolades and upstart sprinter breaks long-standing record

Christian Wenande

Jan 15, 2019

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Caroline Wozniacki had the honour of being Denmark’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony. But she might not even participate at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, by which time she will be 30 years old.

Denmark’s tennis darling revealed this week at the Australian Open in Melbourne that she has yet to make a decision on representing her country in Tokyo – a decision that comes in the wake of her startling announcement last year that she had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis earlier in the year.

“We have yet to make a final decision. It’s in the distant future so I don’t know when we’ll make that final decision,” said Wozniacki, according to DR Nyheder.

Retirement imminent?
Wozniacki has stated a number of times that she intends to retire from competitive tennis before the age of 30, but there could be hope she’ll compete at the 2020 Olympics, as the Danish Tennis Federation announced on January 7 that Wozniacki had been called up for the Federations Cup in February in Poland.

One of the prerequisites for taking part in the Olympics is playing a certain amount of matches for the national team. Taking part in 2020 in Tokyo would mean a fourth Olympic participation for the Dane.

Meanwhile, Wozniacki, the third seed at the Australian Open, is focusing on defending her title from last year – which means getting past Johanna Larsson in the second round tomorrow following an efficient 6-3, 6-4 defeat of big-serving Alison van Uytvanck in her opener on Monday.

An early exit in Melbourne could see the world number three lose a large slice of her ranking points and slide down to around number 10.

Handball gents on schedule
Denmark have lived up to expectations so far at the 2019 Men’s World Handball Championship thanks to three comfortable wins in their first three matches against Chile, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. The co-hosts of the tournament haven’t shown much weakness so far in Group C, aside from a sloppy first-half in last night’s 34-22 win over the Saudis. However, their final two games will give a better indication of where the Danes stand, as Austria and undefeated group rivals Norway will offer sturdier competition.

Andersen ices NHL plaudits
It was a good week for Danish NHL goalkeeper Frederik Andersen, who came back from injury and then received some impressive accolades to boot. According to a panel on NHL.com, the Toronto Maple Leafs netminder has been the best at his position over the course of the first half of the NHL season. Andersen won the survey with 64 points, just two points ahead of John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks and ten ahead of Marc-Andre Fleury from the Vegas Golden Knights. The 29-year-old Dane owns a save percent of 92.3 percent over 30 games, allowing about 2.5 goals in per game. Andersen and Toronto are aiming to win the Stanley Cup this year for the first time since 1967.

Kramer vs 31-year-old record
The Danish sprinter Mathilde Kramer turned heads over the weekend after breaking the 31-year-old national record in the 60m sprints. Kramer crossed the line in 7.36 seconds in a race in Sweden in a time that qualified her for the Indoor European Championships in Glasgow in March. The 25-year-old has now set her sights on the Danish 100m record of 11.42 seconds, which was set way back in 1983 by Dorte Rasmussen. Kramer’s personal best in the 100m currently stands at 11.58 seconds, and because she didn’t start sprinting until she was 18, she thinks there is plenty of room for improvement. Another dream of hers is taking part in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Massive badminton upset
The Singaporean badminton player Kean Yew Loh, who plies his trade at second-tier Danish club Langhøj, sprung one of the biggest upsets in badminton history over the weekend by sensationally winning the men’s singles at the Thailand Masters. Loh, a qualifier no less, beat the 6th and 7th seeds on the way to the final, where he shocked top-seeded legend Lin Dan 21-19, 21-18. The 21-year-old, who is ranked 125 in the world and just third in his own team in Denmark, said afterwards that he was honoured just to play against Lin Dan. See the highlights below.