Bangkok: Denmark’s No. 4 seed Viktor Axelsen put on a brilliant display to outlast Daren Liew of Malaysia 21-16, 21-15 in the quarter-finals of Toyota Thailand Open on Friday.
The funny thing was, the 2017 world champion Dane broke his racket on the winning shot. He thought this could be the first time in the history of badminton where someone broke a racket and win the match. Axelsen was left with only the handle when he defeated Liew in straight games.
After the game, Liew told Malaysian media he had tried his best.
“I did not feel that I was at my best. Viktor played very well. I tried to stop his rhythm and slow down his game,” said Liew.
“I felt better in this second tournament than the first (last week). It was a great thing to be able to play in the tournament again,” added Liew.
Axelsen will play Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the semi-finals on Saturday, after the Taiwanese player defeated his compatriot, Wang Tzu Wei 21-16, 21-16.
In men’s doubles, after losing the first round of YONEX Thailand Open to compatriots Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong, Malaysia’s Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik secured a place in the semi-final by beat Goh/Tan 21-16, 21-13 in the quarter-finals of Toyota Open on Friday.
The eighth-seeded Chia/Soh will take on the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty in the semi-final who scored a 21-18, 24-22 victory over another Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi.
“We are happy with today’s match because we follow the game plan and applied our strategy properly,” said Chia.
“Maybe luck was on our side today,” added Chia.
“We expected the match to be very intense. We didn’t forget last week’s match and we are trying our best to bounce back from it and learn from our mistakes,” continued Chia.
Last week’s YONEX Thailand Open winners Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan will play Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia in another men’s doubles semi-finals.
The women’s singles semi-finals will be between Tai Tzu Ying vs. Ratchanok Intanon and Carolina Marin vs. An Se Young.
