Two players are uppermost on Cathrine Rosengren’s mind as she makes her final preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games – Yang Qiuxia and Ayako Suzuki.
Over the last few years, these two opponents in women’s singles SU5 have thwarted the Dane in the semifinals or finals at eight tournaments, and Rosengren knows that her quest for gold at Tokyo will possibly be determined by her performance against either or both of them.
“Yes, my main focus is Yang from China and Ayako Suzuki from Japan, and I haven’t won against them yet but I’ve been close too many times, so it’s like these two matches that I’ve been trying to focus on and train up to it,” says Rosengren, who is seeded 3, behind Suzuki and Yang.
“It is a little bit weird to say that there’s only two players to train to win against but I can win against all the others even though I don’t have my highest level. So we’ve been trying to focus a lot on how I have to play against Suzuki and Yang, and also focusing only on the few things that worked when I played against them.”
Rosengren is 0-5 against Suzuki and 0-4 against Yang, but three of her four matches against the Chinese have gone three games, while against Suzuki all five losses have been in straight games. The Dane however is optimistic as she derives confidence from her last performance against Yang.
“I can remember my last tournament in 2019, I was playing against Yang in the semifinals (at the Japan Para Badminton International), and I hadn’t been able to practice for two months or something like that because of my knee and I even managed to go into three games against her… After that day, I was very confident about them, about the Paralympics because I knew that if we just get back on court and train some more than they’re not so far from me and I’m sure I can beat them this time.”
Her preparations in the run-up to Tokyo have been sound. She won the Spanish Para Badminton International without dropping a game, including in the final against Mamiko Toyoda. Interestingly, she also played alongside able-bodied players at the VICTOR Denmark Masters earlier this month, and won her first round qualifying match.
“It was a great experience for me. I actually used to play able-bodied badminton when I was younger, so it wasn’t that different for me to go and play these matches, but it was a very great opportunity to play at a high level, try and work with the things I’ve been working on to see how it felt on court and yeah it was great. I was happy I got the opportunity,” says Rosengren.
Her preparations have included training at the national centre and at her club.
“I play at my badminton club, and then I also train with my national coaches, just me and them doing some technical and tactical stuff. And then, I’m at the national team for gym, and interval bike sessions, physical training, but mostly I’m training at my club.
“It’s been a long journey, but it’s been worth all the time so I’m really happy about it. I was so insecure in 2016 (about choosing Para badminton) if I had to say yes or no, because it was something different.
I never saw myself as a disabled person but yeah I’m really happy that I said yes, it’s been great, I’ve made very good friends and some great memories and stuff like that. I’m really happy about my decision.”