Skaarup: Two minutes after standing on the podium, I was on my way to maternity ward

- Two minutes after standing on the podium, I was on my way to the maternity ward

By Ronni Burkal Elkjær

The Danish men’s doubles player Anders Skaarup had originally opted out of the 2021 Denmark Open final, but his heavily pregnant wife persuaded him to play.

HC Andersen would have even found it difficult to write a better fairy tale than the one that manifested last year during the Denmark Open in Odense.

- In fact, it’s really an insane story. We needed a miracle, and that’s exactly what we got, says Anders Skaarup as he thinks back to the event. Already at the time when last year’s tournament in Denmark was about to begin, his pregnant wife was past her due date. There was no way he wanted to miss the birth of his second child, so he had decided it would be just a short visit to the city on Funen. He didn’t think it would be possible to both play in Sunday’s final and witness his wife giving birth within just a few hours of each other.

- It was most definitely the craziest week ever for me, says Skaarup.

Father-in-law and friend were on standby with a car

The plan was set and coordinated with national coaches and his sports manager. If he got a call from his wife, he would pack his bag and drive immediately to the maternity ward.

That is also how it was when he took part in the Thomas Cup – World Championships for the men’s team – in Aarhus the week before. The phone was never out of reach right up until it was time to warm up for the matches. Then the phone was packed away, and the focus was on badminton.

His wife also had the numbers of former national coach Jakob Høi and sports manager Jens Meibom in case she needed to get hold of someone in the meantime.

- The Denmark Open will always come again. But I don’t think I will have any more children, so for someone in a relationship, it is such an important and exciting experience to have a child that I would have found it very difficult to gamble with whether or not I could make the birth, explains the 33-year-old Skaarup.

From the very start of the tournament, the plan was that either his father-in-law or a good friend would be on standby with a car in case he needed to leave in a hurry. Thoughts started focusing on the first rounds of play since he and his partner Kim Astrup had never managed to reach a quarter-final at the home tournament. This circumstance was all about to change.

More fun to be on the court than usual

Astrup and Skaarup set out in the tournament by comfortably beating fellow compatriots Daniel Lundgaard and Mathias Thyrri. Likewise, in the second round, the Indonesian opponents Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Rambitan were beaten in straight games. In terms of the draw, Astrup and Skaarup also missed out on playing against world elite Kevin Sukamuljo and Marcus Gideon, who had been eliminated.

- The tournament started off fantastically for us. I don’t think we’ve played so well at the Denmark Open before. Our match in the second round was a sign of just how well we had played.

Skaarup and Astrup had a unique chance to go far. But Skaarup almost didn’t dare think about how long they could keep playing before he got a call.

- We couldn’t let go of the handbrake because we didn’t dare to dream big compared to our level of play that week, says the men’s doubles player.

He was in constant limbo. A happy form of limbo, admittedly. Since he was so looking forward to playing and his wife giving birth, he just couldn’t believe he could have both.

Every day felt like being on borrowed time, so standing on the court felt even more fun than usual.

- As the week progressed, I started looking more and more forward to playing in the matches. But I was also insanely looking forward to having a child. So no matter what happened on the day, it would be fine with me.

I felt moved after the semi-final

There was dancing and hugging when Astrup and Skaarup won the quarter-final against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana in three close sets. Skaarup also sent his wife a sign at home. He put his thumb in his mouth whilst cheering as a sign of what would come shortly.

All the while Astrup and Skaarup kept getting one step closer to victory, the situation at home remained stable and uneventful. The birth was still yet to happen.

Throughout the week, Skaarup kept continuous contact with his wife. That way, he could give fair and accurate updates to Kim Astrup and Jakob Høi. They had to know what was going on, so they knew how Skaarup’s state of mind was, so they, at least on the court, could do their best to help him perform as well as possible under the special circumstances.

- There are many excuses for not performing well. Both for myself, but the fact that my head wasn’t quite where it should’ve been, was also a huge burden to place on Kim. When we did what we had achieved together, it all became very intense and struck me after the semi-final.

The euphoric celebration after the quarter-final stood in great contrast to after the semi-final. An intense, nerve-wracking match, where momentum and impulse flew continually back and forth across the net, and ultimately concluded with a Danish victory after three sets against Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin from Malaysia.

Anders Skaarup celebrated his place in the final in a unique way by sitting down as still as a stone.

- I felt enormously moved. I was also completely done at that point. There were many times in the match where we were close to winning, but then we ended up playing a third set. There is also the aspect of playing on home turf, surrounded by people cheering you on. It was fantastic. I think I gave a strong performance, but so did Kim and our team.

It was hard to believe for Skaarup. An intense week had resulted in a final - his first Denmark Open final in his career.

Opted out of the final

Last year’s Denmark Open took place inside a “corona bubble”. This detail meant that masks were worn, and players and spectators were not allowed to stay in the same areas.

Despite this, Anders Skaarup was given special permission to leave the bubble after his semi-final performance on Saturday, provided he got tested when he reentered the bubble. It got close to this not even being necessary.

Sunday morning at six o’clock, Skaarup had to call his neighbour. His wife was about to give birth, and the neighbour had to look after their eldest boy, Bo, in the meantime.

When they arrived at the maternity ward, Skaarup wrote to Astrup and Høi that the birth was in progress and, as a result, he wouldn’t be able to play in the final.

Nevertheless, Skaarup’s wife was still not quite ready to give birth. One of the midwives had explained that many hours could pass. This fact did not affect Skaarup’s decision to pull out of the final. He was still ready to stay by his wife’s side.

But his wife thought that he ought to take advantage of the wait.

- My wife sent me on my way again, saying, ’get driving and don’t pull out of the tournament. Let us at least see how far you get. Maybe you’ll reach Ringsted or Nyborg or all the way to Odense and have time to warm up. I’ll call if there is anything’, recollects Skaarup.

After that, he let Astrup and Høi know he was planning to give the final a chance. His wife didn’t call on the journey over there, so Skaarup could still step onto the court for the final in the middle of the afternoon. Despite playing fantastically throughout the week, there was nothing to be done in the final against Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, who won in straight sets.

- At that point, I really had nothing left to give. It was difficult to give 110 per cent when I knew it was no longer a matter of days but hours before my wife would give birth. Having said that, we were up against a pair that was on top form, and we would have needed to give an overperformance if we were to have been able to win.

It all came together in the end

A friend was already ready with the car after the final, but first, Skaarup had to take an official trip up to the podium, receive the trophy and have his pictures taken. Only then could he rush off to the maternity ward again. - Literally, two minutes after standing on the podium, I was in the car and off to the maternity ward. I barely had time to thank Astrup and Høi for the great week, and I would have liked to have finished off the tournament at dinner with everyone and done some evaluating. But a split second meant that I found myself in a completely new situation.

At 5 pm, Skaarup arrived at the maternity ward and met his wife, who had done pretty much everything in her power to hold off the birth until her husband was by her side again. At around 8.30 pm, the highlight of the very intense week finally happened. Eik was born.

- It was such a surreal feeling to wake up the next morning knowing that we were suddenly four people in the house. It’s a funny story for us as a family, and we feel fortunate that nothing went wrong during the birth. My in-laws also took on a huge load by staying at home with my wife and looking after my second son. A lot was going on around me, and all I was expected to do was play badminton. Not often everything comes together, but I felt it did this time.