KUALA LUMPUR: For Danish shuttler Line Kjaersfeldt, defeats, even many of them, won't discourage her.
Today, the world No 29, in her 11th attempt, finally got her first win over Spain's three-time world champion, Carolina Marin.
Line beat Carolina 21-19, 19-21, 21-13 en route to reaching the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open.
"I cannot describe it, to be 10-0 down (head-to-head), I finally got to beat Carolina.
"I've been working hard everyday, and should have beaten her in the quarter-finals of the European Championships because I was leading all the way. I didn't, and maybe that's why I got it today.
"I know Carolina is coming back from a serious injury, and she is not in her Olympic gold form, but this is my chance and I took it.
"Last week, I beat Ratchanok (Intanon), it shows that I can beat the best players in the world. I want to aim higher and start beating these players," said Line, who will be making her third consecutive quarter-final appearance this season, after the Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open. Line, who is no stranger to the Malaysian crowd, having featured for Denmark in the Sudirman Cup in 2013, believes she is finally ready to announce her arrival in the big league.
"I love playing in Malaysia, it has always been amazing. Now that I'm more mature, I believe I'm ready to fight for a title.
"It's a really tough women's singles field, but I am also here right now, and I want the rest to feel that I'm also another shuttler they have to watch out for," added Line, who will take on China's Wang Zhi Yi tomorrow. today.
The others who will feature in the last eight are world No 2 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan, former world champion P.V. Sindhu of India, and eighth seed, Ratchanok from Thailand.
Carolina, a six-time European champion, praised Line.
"She has definitely improved a lot, she deserves it. However, I'm quite disappointed the match didn't go my way. I couldn't control myself and the draught but this is life. You learn from the losses, this was one of them," lamented the Spaniard, who skipped last year's Tokyo Olympics due to a knee injury.