He has won most things, Viktor Axelsen.
But on Sunday morning, Danish time, he added a trophy to his overflowing trophy case, which he did not already have.
Because with a victory in two sets with the figures 22-20 and 21-17, the Danish badminton star defeated the Chinese Shi Yuqi in the final at the Japan Masters in Kumamoto and thus won the tournament for the first time.
The Japan Masters is a so-called Super 500 tournament, which is badminton’s third highest tournament level. It is Viktor Axelsen’s sixth tournament victory in 2023.
In Sunday’s final, however, the Danish world number one had to fight hard for victory against Shi Yuqi, who is number seven in the world ranking. The Chinese has been playing well throughout the tournament, while Axelsen continues to struggle to get into top form after the injury that kept him out in October and early November.
Nevertheless, it was the first-seeded Dane who could stretch his arms in the air after a long and tough final. Thus, Axelsen’s comeback tournament was a bit of a triumph.
Tough first set with long duels
The first set of the match ended up being a long affair with several of the very long duels, which really took a physical toll on both players.
Viktor Axelsen actually had an excellent start to the match and the first set and dominated in most aspects of the duels. Therefore, the Dane also got ahead relatively quickly and quite comfortably, and in fact he was ahead by as much as 11-5 at the interval in the first set.
But from here, fourth-seeded Shi Yuqi struck again. The Chinese got a completely different handle on his offensive game and succeeded in moving Axelsen around the field. And it quickly helped the Chinese. Also on the scoreboard.
The Chinese got closer and closer to Axelsen, and suddenly the Dane’s lead was only one point at 11-10 to the Dane. In the rest of the set it was very close, and therefore the two players also had to use a little extra points to get the set decided. But in the decisive balls, Axelsen proved to be the sharpest, and he secured the set with the numbers 22-20.
2023-11-19 08:06:00
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