After a month and a half break from the tournament, world number seven Viktor Axelsen was back on the field on Tuesday at the Super 750 tournament French Open in Paris.
And it was a Dane who didn’t need to knock the rust off. In 37 minutes, he outplayed the Indian Priyanshu Rajawat, world number 29, and won by the numbers 21-8, 21-15.
In the second round of the tournament, which ranks at the World Tour’s third-highest level, either Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie or Taiwan’s Wang Tzu Wei await.
Anders Antonsen, the winner of the Malaysia Open and Indonesia Masters this year, and Magnus Johannesen are also in the French Open, but will not play until Wednesday. Rasmus Gemke withdrew from the tournament beforehand.
Axelsen played hard on Monday and immediately showed his Indian opponent that he had the prospect of a difficult match.
The Danish giant ran away with an 8-2 lead early on and Rajawat never came close to taking the set. Axelsen ended the first set by winning eight points in a row.
He also came out well in the second set, although Rajawat hung on at 5-5.
At the midway stop, the Olympic champion was ahead 11-6, and he cruised to victory.
In mixed doubles there was a comeback for Denmark’s best constellation with Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje, after the former has suffered with an injury in recent months.
In the pair’s first match since November, they were defeated by the numbers 14-21, 14-21 against the Thais with the catchy names Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Next week the All England is played, which is one of the biggest tournaments of the season.
2024-03-05 17:06:50
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