Arnaud Merkle, Ben Lane/Sean Vendy, and Rasmus Gemke have all advanced to the semifinals at the CLASH OF CLANS Arctic Open 2025 powered by YONEX. But securing a podium finish at this Super 500 tournament is not enough – they’re aiming for gold.

The quarterfinals were sadly the final stop in Vantaa for Margot Lambert/Camille Pognante, Amalie Schulz, Line Højmark Kjærsfeldt, and Mia Blichfeldt – the latter having retired from her match against Akane Yamaguchi. We’ve seen amazing performances from them this week, and we look forward to seeing more in the upcoming tournaments.

However, some are not done yet. Arnaud Merkle was the first European to secure his spot in the Arctic Open semifinals. “It’s amazing. I have a new chance to learn tomorrow on court and I’m really happy that I’m able to play this level in Finland,” Merkle said after his win.

The Frenchman faced Jia Heng Jason Teh. “He’s a good friend and an amazing opponent, very dangerous,” Merkle said of the Singaporean player. The match was close, Merkle took the first game 24-22, and while the second stayed close until 17-17, the French player pulled away with the win. “He’s one of the best in the world to the net and he has a super good attack. I knew I needed to move very quick, be very ready in the first shot.”

In the first round, Merkle defeated home favourite Joakim Oldorff, then sixth seed Kenta Nishimoto in the following round, and now Teh, who sits 20 spots above him in the world ranking. So what does a Super 500 semifinal mean to him? “It means my level is pretty good because the draw was quite tough. It means a lot, but it’s not over yet. I have chances to take the gold, and I will do everything I can.”

Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will also be competing in tomorrow’s semifinals and they’re on the same mission. “[We are] (h)appy about our performance today but we’re not done yet,” said Vendy.

The English pair began the tournament with a solid win, then faced Danes William Kryger Boe/Christian Faust Kjær in a close three-game clash. Today, they were more dominant, defeating China’s Chen Bo Yang/Liu Yi 21-16 21-12.

“Yesterday, I don’t think we quite brought our best level but the Danes played really well. Today, back to some good stuff. Hopefully we take today’s performance into tomorrow,” Vendy added. 

In the semifinals, they will meet Malaysia’s Choong Hon Jian/Muhammal Haikal. The English pair are ready and happy to have already improved on last year’s result, where they lost in the quarterfinals. “I feel like we wanted to do one better than last year and we have done that now.”

Tomorrow’s matches (all times in EEST)
Arnaud Merkle vs Chou Tien Chen – est. 2:20pm
Ben Lane/Sean Vendy vs Choong Hon Jian/Muhammal Haikal – est. 5:00pm
Kunlavut Vitidsarn vs Rasmus Gemke – est. 5:50pm