Newly crowned All-England men’s singles champion Viktor Axelsen held his semi-final opponent Lee Zii Jia in high regard after winning the world’s oldest badminton tournament on Sunday.
The Dane easily brushed aside Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-13, 21-14 in the final for his first All-England title.
It was a breeze compared to the test Lee gave him in the semis, where both men battled to the wire before Axelsen prevailed 17-21, 21-13, 21-19.
"I was lucky in the end, it could have gone both ways. I’m not surprised by how he played. I’ve seen him play many times now, I lost to him in Korea, so I wasn’t surprised.
"He’s an attacking player and really strong, physically very powerful. It was a tough for both of us, we both were trying to attack and I’m just happy I managed to win," said Axelsen.
If not for a technical fault at 19-19 in the third game, it could have been Lee against Chou in the final.
But the Kedah-born described his journey as a “dream” after he beat the high ranked Jonatan Christie and Chen Long for the Axelsen showdown.
“From the first round to the semi-finals, it still feels like a dream. I didn’t expect to play this well, and it means the world to me,” said the Malaysian.
The All-England final played out to a full house at the Birmingham Arena despite the worsening Covid-19, which has seen almost every sporting event across the globe either suspended or called off.
The Badminton World Federation have decided to postpone all their sanctioned events until further notice from March 16, due to the pandemic.
All-England final results
Men’s Singles – Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) bt Chou Tien-chen (Taiwan) 21-13, 21-14
Women’s Singles – Tai Tzu-ying (Taiwan) bt Chen Yufei (China) 21-19, 21-15
Men’s Doubles – Hiroyuki Endo-Yuta Watanabe (Japan) bt Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya (Indonesia) 21-18, 12-21, 21-19
Mixed Doubles – Praveen Jordan-Melati Oktavianti (Indonesia) beat Dechaphol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai 21-15, 17-21, 21-8
Women’s Doubles - Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (Japan) bt Du Yue-Li Yin Hui (China) 21-13, 21-15
Nicolas Anil
Mon Mar 16 2020
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