Toma Junior Popov was close to a sensational early exit today as he faced Gustav Bjorkler from Sweden, who currently sits at No. 111 in the world rankings.

Bjorkler came out strong, causing problems for Popov with his aggressive and fast-paced flat game. The Swede surprisingly took the first set 21-19. In the second set, Popov led from start to finish, although he struggled to fully shake off the relentless Swede, eventually taking it 21-17.

The third set started evenly, with the players locked at 10-10 before Popov managed to pull ahead. As Toma Popov said himself:

“It was really tense, all the three games. In the third game until 11-10, after I think I got some easy points, and he made some easy mistakes, that got me a huge gap, to just control the game after.”
He closed out the deciding set 21-14.

Popov was also quick to acknowledge the level of his opponent:
“He played really good, he played the flat game with me, and he is really tall, maybe even taller than me, but he really succeeded to take my speed away.”

In the quarterfinal, Toma Popov will face either Giovanni Toti from Italy, who pulled off an upset yesterday by defeating 8th seed Julien Carraggi, or England’s Ethan Rose. The two will meet in match 5 on court 2.

All matches are streamed live on BadmintonEurope.tv.