Dubai: World No. 1 men’s singles player Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia suffered his first defeat to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in their tenth career head-to-head meeting at the World Super Series Finals in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday.
After winning one set apiece, Axelsen went into attack mode in the decider to knock out the Malaysian badminton superstar 14-21, 21-14, 21-19 to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament.
“I am really excited! I have never beaten Lee Chong Wei, this is a very important milestone for me,” said Axelsen after the match.
“When I was young, I’ve watched many Lee Chong Wei’s matches, I really admired and looked up to him a lot,” added Axelsen.
After the random draw was conducted to determine places in the knock out stage, Axelsen was drawn to meet Son Wan Ho who defeated him on Thursday one more time in the semi-final, while Tian Houwei will play Jan Jorgensen in the other side of the draw.
In men’s doubles, No. 2 seed Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia pulled off a great escape to edge past Chai Biao/Hong Wei 16-21, 21-13, 22-20. However, both pairs are slated to meet again in the semi-finals after the random draw has grouped them in the same half of the semi-finals.
Mads Conrad-petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark and Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan are set to cross-swords in other men’s doubles semi-final.
