Anders Antonsen
Anders Antonsen (born 27 April 1997) is a Danish badminton player. He won the gold medal at the 2015 European Junior Championships in the boys singles event, and at the same year was awarded the European Young Player of the Year. Together with the national team, he won the European Men's Team Championships in 2016 and 2018; also European Mixed Team Championships in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Antonsen was the champion at the 2019 Minsk European Games, 2021 European Championships, the silver medalist at the 2017 European Championships, and the 2019 World Championships, and the bronze medalist at the 2021 World Championships. Career Antonsen started his career in badminton at six years of age in Kastanievej, Viby. Together with his brother Kasper Antonsen, they learned from his father who worked at one of the badminton clubs in Aarhus called AB. He made his international debut at the 2013 Forza Denmark International tournament. In 2015, he won the European Junior Championship, defeating German player Max Weißkirchen with a score of 21–9, 15–21, 21–9 in the final. In the same year, he also won several tournaments such as Dutch International, Belgian International, and Irish Open, and awarded the 2015 European Young Player of the Year. In 2016, he won his first Grand Prix, the Scottish Open Grand Prix. In the same year, he also won several other tournaments such as the Spanish International, Austrian Open, and Swedish Master. In 2017, he won the silver medal at the European Championship after being defeated by Rajiv Ouseph of England with a tight score of 19–21, 19–21. He also reached the semifinals in two Superseries tournaments, the 2017 French Open where he lost to Kenta Nishimoto from Japan with a score of 17–21, 15–21, and later the Hong Kong Open where he was defeated by 2016 Rio Olympics gold medal winner Chen Long from China with a score of 14–21, 21–19, 17–21. In 2018, Antonsen was chosen to be part of the Danish Thomas Cup team and won a bronze medal. At the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament, he managed to reach the semifinals but was defeated at that stage by Chinese Taipei player Chou Tien-chen with a score of 21–19, 11–21, 12–21. Play for the Aarhus AB, Antonsen won the National Championships title three times in a row from 2017–2019. He won the BWF World Tour title at the 2019 Indonesia Masters, defeating 2018 World Champion and then World number 1 Kento Momota from Japan in the final with a score of 21–16, 14–21, 21–16. He emerged as the men's singles champion and took the gold medal at the 2019 Minsk European Games beat Brice Leverdez of France in the final with the score 21–19, 14–21, 21–10. At the 2019 Indonesia Open a Super 1000 tournament, Antonsen managed to step into the final round but he had to be satisfied as runner-up after losing to Chou Tien-chen with a score of 18–21, 26–24, 15–21. Antonsen captured the silver medal at the 2019 World