Birmingham: A defiant Viktor Axelsen from Denmark who lost to Lakshya Sen of India in last week’s German Open semi-finals, refused to let history repeat itself, taming 20-year-old Lakshya Sen 21-10, 21-15 to clinch his second All England title on Sunday after he won the prestigious title in 2020.
Axelsen must have learned from last week’s defeat to Sen and Lee Zii Jia’s loss to Sen in the All England semi-final, he knew that Sen has a very good defense, too many smashing not only would make the Dane himself tired very quickly, but it would not convert as he expected. Therefore, the Dane was playing very patiently, focusing on moving Sen from mid to the backcourt areas, and trying to use a very tight net shot to force the Indian to lift the shuttlecock and then kill it.
That strategy made the Indian very uncomfortable and committed a lot of unforced errors. Axelsen ultimately scored the match point when Sen’s net shot found the net.
Interestingly, as Axelsen was celebrating his victory by throwing his rackets to the crowd, he was warned by the umpire, Paul Buffham, that he shouldn’t have thrown his rackets to the crowd.
“It’s so hard to describe the feeling, a rush of emotion, and rush of relief, I am very happy right now,” said Axelsen after the match.
Meanwhile, Sen also admitted Axelsen was a better player in the final.
“I just couldn’t get my shuttlecock down. I played him last week, but he was solid in both offense and defense,” said Sen.
“He was playing patiently,” explained Sen.
In women’s singles, reigning World Champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan defeated An Seyoung of Korea in a one-sided contest as the Japanese dominated the final right from the get-go, winning 21-15, 21-15.
