Viktor Axelsen beat Lee Zi Jia in a highly anticipated group clash at the badminton world team championships, the 2024 BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finalson Tuesday (30 April) as Denmark topped Thomas Cup Group D in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, by beating Malaysia 3-2.
With both Denmark and Malaysia each having won their first two matches, Tuesday’s meeting between the teams determined which team would be seeded for the quarter-final draw. And as their teams’ top singles players, Olympic champion Axelsen and world number 10 Lee squared off in the opening tie.
Axelsen appeared in control of their match, dominating the first game and only really being threatened by a brief run of six straight points for Lee. The Dane then came within two points of the match in the second at 19-13 up, but Lee rallied again to level the scores and force the game beyond 21 points.
Ultimately, Axelsen prevailed 21-15, 24-22 in a thrilling 45-minute encounter.
With Denmark having the stronger singles players – world number four Anders Antonsen was no match for Leong Jun Hao – Malaysia relied on their doubles pairings to keep in touching distance.
Both Aaron Chia / Soh Wooi Yik and Goh Sze Fei / Nur Izzuddin eked out wins in their respective doubles rubbers to level the overall tie at 1-1 and again at 2-2.
However, Rasmus Gemke completed the Danish overall win by defeating Justin Hoh 21-13, 19-21, 21-13 despite a brief scare in the second game.
There was also a near-upset in Group A as China defeated Republic of Korea 3-2 in an enthralling match to determine the group winners.
The hosts recorded singles wins by Shi Yuqi and Li Shifengbut were twice pegged back by the Koreans in the doubles matches, meaning the match came down to a decider between Lu Guangzu and Woo Seung-hoon.
Lu prevailed 21-10, 21-15 in straight games to prevent a shock defeat.
In the women’s Uber Cup, hosts China and fellow favourites Republic of Korea each confirmed their spots at the top of their respective groups with 5-0 wins over India and Denmark respectively. Both Chen Yufei and An Seyoung won their respective matches in straight games.
Separately, it was announced that Horsens, Denmarkwill host the next BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals in 2026.
The Thomas and Uber Cup Finals 2024 are available to stream live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices (territorial restrictions may apply).
2024-04-30 14:52:00
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