Jesper Toft and Amalie Magelund could hardly have asked for a better way to open their 2026 season.

After an underwhelming end to 2025, where they exited four of their last five tournaments before the quarterfinal stage, the Danes arrived in Kuala Lumpur with modest expectations at a venue they had only experienced once before.

Yet, at the Axiata Arena on Wednesday, the world No.11 duo produced a composed performance to beat fifth seeds Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue 21-13 17-21 21-9 in the PETRONAS Malaysia Open 2026 first round.

With it came a remarkable milestone: a 4-0 head-to-head record against the French tandem.

“We played well the whole match,” Magelund said. “It’s nice to get started like this with the year. We really wanted to do well at this tournament and it’s amazing to go in and play like that in this arena.”

Their continued success against Gicquel and Delrue has become a curious pattern, one even Magelund struggles to fully explain.

“Every time we play them, we play well. We seem to have great tactics,” she laughed. “To have a 4-0 record is crazy because they are world class but I think we are doing something right against them.”

Toft revealed they embraced their underdog status before stepping out.

“We spoke that the pressure was on them as a seeded pair,” he said. “So we could go in there and play free. That gave us a lot of confidence.”

Windy conditions added another layer of difficulty, demanding constant adjustments.

“The conditions were different to what we had anticipated so being able to switch your game on both sides was important,” Toft said.

Drawing on lessons from a single appearance at the venue seven months earlier, the 26-year-old felt clear improvement.

“This time I handled it a lot better. Every time you go on court, you learn something new and today we are really satisfied with what we did.”

Irony of the result? They meet another French pair in Julien Maio/Lea Palermo in the Round of 16.

→ Results (Day 2)

→ Order of play (Day 3)