Day two of the KFF Singapore Badminton Open 2025 saw the last remaining European players enter the competition — but it proved to be another challenging day on court.

Tough start
The day began with a tough blow as Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour was defeated by Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon. Later, Mads Vestergaard/Christine Busch faced a particularly tough draw against China’s newly paired Wei Ya Xin/Feng Yan Zhe, who currently hold the number 1 and 2 spots in the Mixed Doubles world rankings. Despite putting up a strong fight in the first game, narrowly losing 20-22, the Danes couldn’t hold on in the second and fell 15-21.

Momentum shifts
The tide soon turned in favour of Europe. Fifth seeds Jesper Toft/Amalie Magelund, ranked seventh in the world, finally broke their streak of early exits, not having reached a quarterfinal since winning the Orléans Masters in early March. They faced the 13th-ranked Thai duo Oupthong/Sudjaipraparat and came out on top in two tight games, 22-20 21-18.

The Danes will now meet fellow Europeans Alexander Dunn/Julie Macpherson in the next round. The Scottish pair delivered a strong performance in their opener, comfortably defeating Indonesia’s Rivaldy/Mentari in 37 minutes.

Rough European ending
Hopes in the singles draw took a hit as Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova fell to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, while Nhat Nguyen came close in the first game against Jonathan Christie but eventually lost 21-23 16-21.

In men’s doubles, it was an unfortunate heartbreak for Kjær/Søgaard, who pushed third seeds Chia/Soh to the limit but lost by the narrowest of margins, 21-19 24-22. Meanwhile, European Championships silver medallists Adam/Rossi were defeated by Malaysia’s Arif/Yap, and Macpherson/Torrance lost their match against China’s Jia/Zhang.

European winners
While the opening rounds didn’t deliver the results Europe had hoped for, a few key names remain in the competition, and we are are eager to see how they will do in the next rounds.

Upcomming matches:

Singles
Christo Popov vs Prannoy H. S.
Toma Junior Popov vs Loh Kean Yew

Men’s Doubles
Popov/Popov vs Kim/Seo [5]
Astrup/Rasmussen [1] vs Xie/Zeng

Mixed Doubles
Toft/Magelund [5] vs Dunn/Macpherson