Erland Kops

Who is Erland Kops?

Erland Kops is a former badminton player from Denmark who won numerous major international singles and doubles titles from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Kops was the first Westerner to win major singles titles in the Far East. He combined abundant speed, power, and stamina with impressive shot-making virtuosity. Despite some disappointing results in the late rounds of Thomas Cup competition, Kops was clearly the dominant tournament men's singles player of the early and mid-1960s.

He is one of the most successful players ever in the All England Open Badminton Championships, when it was regarded as an unofficial world championships, with 11 titles between 1958 and 1969, 7 of them in men's singles and 4 in men's doubles.

Kops was inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame in 1997.