Tokyo: World No. 2 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark ended China’s dominance in badminton by winning Olympic gold in men’s singles on Monday.
Despite not competing in any international tournaments for a year and a half, Chinese players managed to make the finals of all five disciplines of badminton at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Being the reigning Olympic champion, World No. 6 Chen Long won all his matches en route to the finals. The way Chen was playing looked like the 32-year-old had turned back the clock, playing as well as he did at his peak.
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Both Axelsen and Chen had played against each other for a total of 19-times, and Chen was leading their head-to-head meetings with 14-5. Chen Long won 2 and lost 1 in their last three matches, and all three matches were stretched to rubber games. Axelsen won their last encounter with 21-11, 12-21, 22-20 at the Malaysia Masters in January of 2020.
In the Tokyo Olympics final on Monday, Axelsen and Chen played very carefully at the beginning of the first set and the score was very tight. Chen Long got off to 1-0, and the score was leveled at 3-3, 6-6, 9-9 before Axelsen took an 11-9 lead at the mid-game interval.
After the interval, the competition was in full swing in which Chen Long won a Hawkeye challenge to improve his score to 12-15. In the next rally, Axelsen also won a Hawkeye challenge after his shot to Chen’s ride side was determined to be inbound to improve his lead to 16-12.
At 20-15, Axelsen pushed the shuttlecock towards Chen’s body, and Chen reflected the shuttlecock out of bound to allow Axelsen won the first game 21-15.
In the second set, Axelsen was quick at the net and was strong in smashes whenever possible to take the lead at 5-2, 7-6 and slowly widen the gap to 8 points with 19-11. Axelsen clinched the gold medal point when Chen misjudged the trajectory of a right baseline push from Axelsen in the most critical moment to lose the second game 12-21.
The 27 Dane became the second Denmark player to ever win the Olympic men’s singles gold medal, after the current President of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), Poul-Erik Høyer Larsen, won it at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
In the men’s singles bronze medal playoff, World No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting defeated the biggest dark horse of the Tokyo Olympics, Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-11, 21-13 to win bronze.
