Erland Kops
Kops in 1968
Personal information
Country	Denmark
Born	(1937-01-14)14 January 1937 Copenhagen, Denmark
Died	18 February 2017(2017-02-18) (aged 80)
Handedness	Right
Event	Men's singles & Men's doubles
Medal record Men's badminton Representing  Denmark Thomas Cup 1964 Tokyo Men's team European Championships 1970 Port Talbot Men's doubles 1972 Karlskrona Men's doubles European Mixed Team Championships 1972 Karlskrona Mixed team

Erland Kops (14 January 1937 – 18 February 2017)^[1] was a badminton player from Denmark who won numerous major international singles and doubles titles from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

Early life

Kops was born in 1937. His uncles were the boxers Ebbe and Poul Kops who both competed at the Summer Olympics. Erland Kops began to play badminton in Københavns Badminton Klub in 1948. He worked for East Asiatic Company in Thailand from 1958 to 1960.^[2]

Career

In 1958, Erland Kops brought an end to eight years of dominance of by Malayan players at the All England Badminton Championships by winning its Men's Singles event. Kops was also among the first Westerners to win major singles titles in the Far East.^[3] He combined abundant speed, power, and stamina with impressive shot-making virtuosity. Despite some disappointing results in the late rounds of Thomas Cup (men's international team) competition, Kops was clearly the dominant tournament men's singles player and one of the dominant men's doubles players of his era.^[4]

He is one of the most successful players ever in the All England Open Badminton Championships, with 11 titles between 1958 and 1967 - 7 of them in men's singles and 4 in men's doubles - breaking the Irish player Frank Devlin´s record of six titles.^[5][6]

Erland Kops also won 5 times the Danish Championships in men's singles and 4 in men's doubles. In the Nordic Championships, Erland Kops obtained the title 5 times in the men's singles category, 3 times in men's doubles and 2 more times in mixed doubles.^[6]

Kops played 44 national matches for Denmark from 1957-1972.^[6]

With no surprise, Erland Kops was among the first group of badminton players inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 1997,^[7] and was the first player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Badminton Europe Confederation (BEC) in 2013.^[8][9]

As a recognition for his sporting achievements, Erland Kops has been honoured with a knighthood from the Danish Queen, an Honorary Membership of The Danish Sports Federation, an Honorary Membership of Badminton Denmark, the Herbert Scheele Trophy from the Badminton World Federation, and being inducted to the Hall of Fame of Danish Sport, as well as being elected the second best Sportsman in Denmark of the 20th century.^[8]

All England performance

In 1957, Erland Kops lost the final to the Malayan player Eddie B. Choong, but one year later he defeated Finn Kobberø in the final. In 1959, Tan Joe Hok - from Indonesia - won the championship, then, Erland Kops won it from 1960 to 1963. Finally, Erland Kops won it again two more times in 1965 and 1967. In men´s doubles, Erland Kops won the competition teaming up with Poul-Erik Nielsen in 1958 and together with Henning Borch from 1967 to 1969. Kops lost three finals in men's doubles - in 1961 and 1964 together with Poul-Erik Nielsen and against Jorgen Hammergaard / Finn Kobberø, and in 1965 with the Malaysian Oon Choong Jin and against Ng Boon Bee and Tan Yee Khan.

• 1958: Champion - vs Finn Kobberø (Denmark)
• 1960: Champion - vs Charoen Wattanasin (Thailand)
• 1961: Champion - vs Finn Kobberø (Denmark)
• 1962: Champion - vs Charoen Wattanasin (Thailand)
• 1963: Champion - vs Channarong Ratanasaengsuang (Thailand)
• 1965: Champion - vs Tan Aik Huang (Malaysia)
• 1967: Champion - vs Tan Aik Huang (Malaysia)

Achievements

International tournaments

Men's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
1957	All England	Eddy Choong	9–15, 3–15	Runner-up
1958	All England	Finn Kobberø	15–10, 8–15, 15–8	Winner
1958	Dutch Open	Ferry Sonneville	3–15, 8–15	Runner-up
1960	All England	Charoen Wattanasin	15–1, 11–15, 15–6	Winner
1960	Swiss Open	Jimmy Lim	15–5, 15–4	Winner
1961	Canada Open	Robert McCoig	15–2, 15–12	Winner
1961	All England	Finn Kobberø	15–10, 15–6	Winner
1961	French Open	Ferry Sonneville	15–12, 15–10	Winner
1962	Swedish Open			Winner
1962	All England	Charoen Wattanasin	15–10, 15–5	Winner
1962	German Open	Ferry Sonneville	15–10, 14–15, 15–3	Winner
1963	U.S. Open	Channarong Ratanaseangsuang		Winner
1963	Canada Open	Channarong Ratanaseangsuang	15–12, 15–12	Winner
1963	All England	Channarong Ratanaseangsuang	15–7, 15–7	Winner
1963	German Open	Henning Borch	15–2, 15–3	Winner
1964	Swedish Open			Winner
1964	German Open	Knud Aage Nielsen	15–7, 15–13	Winner
1965	All England	Tan Aik Huang	15–13, 15–12	Winner
1965	U.S. Open	Channarong Ratanaseangsuang		Winner
1965	Mexico International	Channarong Ratanaseangsuang		Winner
1966	German Open	Knud Aage Nielsen		Winner
1966	London Championships	Svend Pri	0–15, 7–15	Runner-up
1966	French Open	Ang Tjin Siang	6–15, 15–6, 7–15	Runner-up
1967	All England	Tan Aik Huang	15–12, 15–10	Winner
1967	Singapore Open	Tan Aik Huang	11–15, 8–15	Runner-up
1967	U.S. Open	Suresh Goel	15–2, 15–12	Winner
1967	Dutch Open	Tom Bacher	15–8, 15–9	Winner
1967	Malaysia Open	Darmadi	15–10, 15–3	Winner
1967	Norwegian International			Winner
1967	German Open	Wolfgang Bochow	17–14, 15–10	Winner
1967	Canada Open	Wayne Macdonnell	15–11, 15–11	Winner
1968	German Open	Tan Aik Huang	9–15, 18–17, 15–5	Winner
1968	Denmark Open			Winner
1969	Dutch Open	Oon Chong Hau	12–15, 4–15	Runner-up
1970	Denmark Open	Ippei Kojima	3–15, 10–15	Runner-up
1971	Norwegian International	Svend Pri	10–15, 10–15	Runner-up

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
1958	All England	Poul-Erik Nielsen	Finn Kobberø Jørgen Hammergaard Hansen	15–7, 11–15, 15–8	Winner
1958	Dutch Open	Jørgen Hageman	Oon Chong Jin Arne Rasmussen	15–11, 15–4	Winner
1959	Malaysia Open	Eddy Choong	Teh Kew San Lim Say Hup	11–15, 9–15	Runner-up
1960	Swiss Open	Knud E. Jepsen	Jimmy Lim Randy Oey	15–2, 15–11	Winner
1961	Canada Open	Robert McCoig	Finn Kobberø Jørgen Hammergaard Hansen	8–15, 10–15	Runner-up
1961	French Open	Finn Kobberø	Oon Chong Teik Yeoh Kean Hua	15–6, 15–10	Winner
1962	German Open	Poul-Erik Nielsen	Finn Kobberø Jørgen Hammergaard Hansen	7–15, 13–15	Runner-up
1963	U.S. Open	Robert McCoig	Joe Alston T. Wynn Rogers		Winner
1963	Canada Open	Robert McCoig	Sangob Rattanusorn Channarong Ratanaseangsuang	15–13, 11–15, 15–13	Winner
1963	German Open	Poul-Erik Nielsen	Henning Borch Jørgen Mortensen	15–5, 15–3	Winner
1964	German Open	Poul-Erik Nielsen	Finn Kobberø Jørgen Hammergaard Hansen	15–3, 15–6	Winner
1964	All England	Poul-Erik Nielsen	Finn Kobberø Jørgen Hammergaard Hansen	6–15, 3–15	Runner-up
1965	All England	Oon Chong Jin	Tan Yee Khan Ng Boon Bee	7–15, 5–15	Runner-up
1965	Mexico International	Don Paup			Winner
1966	London Championships	Svend Pri	D.O. Fulton Roger Mills	9–15, 15–7, 15–12	Winner
1967	Swedish Open	Henning Borch	Per Walsøe Svend Pri		Runner-up
1967	All England	Henning Borch	Per Walsøe Svend Pri	15–8, 15–12	Winner
1967	U.S. Open	Joe Alston			Winner
1967	Dutch Open	Tom Bacher	Alan Parsons William Kerr	15–4, 15–10	Winner
1967	Norwegian International	Elo Hansen			Winner
1967	German Open	Per Walsøe	Wolfgang Bochow Friedhelm Wulff	15–9, 9–15, 0–15	Runner-up
1967	Canada Open	Rolf Paterson	Colin Beacom Roger Mills	6–15, 7–15	Runner-up
1968	All England	Henning Borch	Tan Yee Khan Ng Boon Bee	15–6, 15–4	Winner
1969	Swedish Open	Svend Pri	Tony Jordan Roger Mills	15–13, 8–15, 15–11	Winner
1969	All England	Henning Borch	David Eddy Roger Powell	13–15, 15–10, 15–9	Winner
1969	Dutch Open	Bjarne Andersen	Oon Chong Hau Ho Khim Kooi	15–12, 5–15, 15–5	Winner
1970	Denmark Open	Henning Borch	Per Walsøe Svend Pri		Winner
1971	Dutch Open	Svend Pri	Derek Talbot Elliot Stuart	15–11, 15–5	Winner
1972	Swedish Open	Svend Pri	Per Walsøe Poul Petersen	15–4, 9–15, 15–12	Winner
1972	Dutch Open	Svend Pri			Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
1957	German Open	Agnete Friis	Eddy Choong Barbara Carpenter	15–6, 15–10	Winner
1960	Swiss Open	Annette Schmidt			Winner
1961	French Open	Hanne Jensen	Bengt Nielsen Bitten Nielsen	15–6, 15–10	Winner
1963	Canada Open	Claire Lovett	Claude Lamere Robert McCoig	15–7, 7–15, 9–15	Runner-up
1966	French Open	Lene Køppen			Winner
1969	U.S. Open	Pernille Mølgaard Hansen	Don Paup Helen Tibbetts	15–6, 13–15, 15–7	Winner
1971	Norwegian International	Lene Køppen	Gert Perneklo Eva Twedberg	15–3, 5–15, 10–15	Runner-up