The Great Danes

Tonight, in the Farum Arena in Copenhagen, Tine Baun will grace a badminton court for the very last time as a professional player. In a farewell match reminiscent of the one between Peter Gade and Lin Dan last year, Baun will be joined on court by fellow Danish legend, her predecessor, to be exact; World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, Camilla Martin.

The fact that they have played across different generations and used 3 different scoring systems between them, with Camilla playing before the BWF Super Series even existed, makes their respective results almost impossible to compare, but, with 1 Olympic medal, 2 world medals, 4 All England titles, 5 European titles and 23 national titles between them, one thing is certain: they were both a European force to be reckoned with.

Badminton at the moment remains to be a sport which is heavily, in fact almost completely, dominated by Asia. Only 1 European has ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport (Denmark's Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen in Atlanta '96), and, out of all of the Olympic badminton medals ever awarded, only 10 of them have ever gone to Europeans.

At face value, this doesn't seem to present a problem: China, in particular, are a world-class-well-oiled-badminton-player-churning-out-machine, and all credit to them. Their almost effortless badminton is a pleasure to watch and I feel extremely privileged to have been able to do so, especially during the Lin Dan, Xie Xingfang and Zhang Ning era. However, for a sport to remain in the Olympic programme, it has to be clear that there is a healthy amount of competition between nations for medals. With a comparative 81 Olympic medals having been awarded to players from Asian countries, for the most part, this  'healthy competition' is not exactly the case at the moment.

The clear, pretty much constant exception to this rule comes in the form of the Danish national team, who, after the 2011 Sudirman cup, are, as a collective, ranked 2nd in the world. Individually, they are also the only European nation with players in all 5 disciplines currently ranked within the top 7 internationally, and also boast strength in depth, something which is shown by the fact that all 3 of their top men's singles players rank inside world's top 25.

If we focus on the singles, the results, in particular, of Peter, Camilla and Tine clearly demonstrate that Europe are capable of producing quality world class players, but they also demonstrate that, when Denmark are taken out of the equation, Europe struggles to produce players of this standard in any quantity. To quote Danish coach, Thomas Stuer Lauridsen, Tine ''is our Chinese beater. But she is only one against many Chinese''. Looking at the men's singles situation at present, if we exclude the Danish, there is only one European within the top 25 men's singles players in the world. Put simply: it needs to be more!

When Camilla retired, there was her friend and roommate, the then still Tine Rasmussen, waiting to take over. Tine, who had, after finishing university, been juggling professional badminton with work in a kindergarten and an office to fund herself, had, towards the end of Camilla's career, been fairly matched on standard with Martin. This time, though, it seems as if for the Danish number 2, Karina Jorgensen, who is currently ranked number 62 in the world, the transition into the top 10 to challenge the Chinese will take a bit more time. Meaning only one thing: now, it is up to the rest of Europe to take some pressure off Denmark and to step up to the mark.



Tine coaching Marin to victory at the recent Axiata Cup

After Tine won the All England in 2008, Camilla, now married and using the surname Martin Nygaard, famously text her compatriot with ''welcome to the club''. The question is: who will be the next one to get that text?

Looking to the future, my European to watch would be Spaniard Carolina Marin, who, at just 19 years old is currently ranked 29th in the world, making her Europe's 5th most highly ranked player at the moment (4th if we factor in Baun's retirement). Recent winner of the Finnish Open, Marin also represented Team Europe at last month's Axiata Cup, where she was undefeated throughout the competition. An impressive record for anyone, let alone somebody so young. Interestingly, during the European Team Championships last year, Marin also beat Tine, surely demonstrating her ability to compete with the best.

But, for now, rather than worrying about the future for Europe, tonight belongs to someone who has, at times singlehandedly, kept the state of European women's singles safe for the past decade. I think badminton blogger Mark Phelan summed it up best: ''I started to write a piece about Tine's contribution to European badminton. I stopped after 1 hour because I couldn't find the words''.

I had intended to do the same, but what followed was the realisation that I do not have the words to do her contribution to European badminton justice either.

Always hesitant at the inevitable comparisons drawn between her and Camilla, she always expressed a desire to be ''just Tine''.

When she was on her game, there was no beating her. Often coming back to win from a disadvantaged position, her mental strength and passion when playing was always obvious. On court, her physical strength was, too, and, even after rupturing her Achilles tendon, she still had the rare ability to be able to generate intimidating power from the back of the court when her opponent had her out of position. Off court, she was unintimidating and approachable, respectful and kind in temperament. A true ambassador to badminton, in the words of Gail Emms, ''if [she] hasn't inspired young girls to take up badminton, then I don't know what will''.

When asked about tonight's match, Camilla, who, after retiring still plays in the Danish 2nd division, responded ''I have known Tine for many years. We've travelled together, shared a room together and trained together, and I'd really like to help to give her good evening, and to give people a chance to say goodbye properly''.

Whatever the result of tonight's match, I hope that Tine gets the goodbye that she deserves. If you're in Copenhagen tonight, make sure that you see her off properly.