There was a lot of pressure on Anders Antonsen’s shoulders in the quarter-finals of the Badminton World Championships on Friday evening. But you could neither feel nor see that on the 26-year-old badminton star.
He defeated Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-10, 21-7 and is through to the semi-finals.
Antonsen had not expected that it would go so “smooth”, he says.
– It went easier than I had expected. I had expected him to be a tough nut to crack, but in the end it was as if he had no more tools in the box. He had kind of given up, says Anders Antonsen.
Antonsen got off to a good start with a calm game in the first part of the second set. He showed great control, took six points in a row and led 11-5 at halftime.
Seven points in a row meant that Antonsen was once again riding a wave. The international atmosphere almost lifted the roof of the Royal Arena every time the Dane smashed the ball into Nishimoto’s half.
Antonsen was relentless, and it almost looked easy when he drove the Japanese over 21-10 in the first set.
In the second set, Antonsen increased the tempo and showed even more aggressive beats. Here too, there were not many fingers to put on Antonsen’s game. He played fast and accurate rather than hard, which put pressure on Nishimoto.
The Japanese made mistakes and could not mobilize the balanced Antonsen. It was 11-6 at the break, where Antonsen and the coach talked a lot about tactics.
It paid off, and the 10,000 spectators shot up their seats when Antonsen finished by outscoring Nishimoto 21-7.
Nishimoto himself laughed along the way because he couldn’t reach Antonsen, who several times looked like he was in a completely different world. He works with that a lot, he says.
– I constantly think about my breathing. I try to come down to earth and be ready in my soul every time I start a ball. There is an idea with all the things I do on the field. It is definitely hugely important, he says.
He emphasizes that he has a lot of respect for Nishimoto and that he is “crazy happy” that the fight went the way it did.
– It could easily have been an hour and a half long marathon match. But it went better than I had ever dared to dream.
– It’s always a bit of mixed candy with me. Sometimes it’s crap, and sometimes it’s really nice. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, says Antonsen in conclusion.
World number one and defending world champion Viktor Axelsen dropped out of the tournament less than an hour earlier, and Antonsen is thus the only Dane in the men’s singles semi-finals on Saturday.
Here he will meet the third-seeded Japanese, Kodai Naraoka.
/ritzau/
2023-08-25 19:35:10
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