Whoa, let us play the article. It is ready when you have clicked ‘Allow all’
WC final!
For the second time in his career, the Danish badminton star Viktor Axelsen will play for WC gold.
That much is clear after he beat Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen in the semi-finals in a well-played encounter.
The first set ended with 21-15 in Denmark’s favor without any major problems, and in the second set he again showed evidence of his great class with 21-17. Tien-chen was better with it, but he never got a foot on the ground. Axelsen was simply too good.
Chou Tien Chen is number four in the world rankings and on paper a dangerous opponent. But he always has a hard time against Axelsen, whom he has beaten only twice in now 19 attempts.
This time he tried an aggressive style with lots of shouts and gestures from the start. The hope was probably to annoy Axelsen, but that plan didn’t have much effect either.
The 28-year-old from Fynbo took an 8-2 lead and concentrated on keeping the tempo high against an opponent who was in a tough quarter-final on Friday.
However, Chou Tien Chen delivered an excellent performance and several times in the second set the Taiwanese was ahead.
He never got a handle on Axelsen’s steep and stone-hard smash, which had a great effect. Towards the end, Chen was clearly tired.
But Axelsen wasn’t.
In the final awaits Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Thailand, who is number 17 in the world ranking. Viktor Axelsen must be described as the big favorite here.
Viktor Axelsen won the WC for the first time in 2017.
