Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen and An Se-young secured the men’s and women’s singles crowns respectively with dominating wins in lop-sided finals at the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament in New Delhi on Sunday. Axelsen, a 2017 and 2019 winner, prevailed 21-16 21-8 over last year’s finalist Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the men’s singles summit clash at the KD Jadhav indoor hall which was almost full despite the fact that no Indian was competing in the two finals.
Axelsen, a two time world champion, thus erased the disappointment of falling in the opening round of Malaysian Open super 1000 last week to the same opponent.
“To be honest, to win this title is very special to me. Because it has been just a different feeling on court and different preparation. I’m starting to feel like my motivation is back. I’ve been a competitor this week,” Axelsen, who was playing in his sixth India Open final in 10 years, told reporters.
“Since the Olympics, I’ve had a little bit of issues with injuries. And that has been affecting my motivation a little bit. So to be here now and win the title means a lot.
“The first one as a 31-year-old. But again, as I also said in the other interviews, I was in my first final here 10 years ago, which is crazy. So many things have happened in the last 10 years. But it feels very surreal to win this for the third time in my sixth final. It is amazing.” In the women’s singles, it was another graceful performance from An Se-Young of Korea, a 2023 champion, as she effortlessly packed off Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-12 21-9 to win her second India Open crown. She had also reached the finals last year.
Malaysian combination of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzudding, who had ended India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s run at the semifinals, produced another superlative show to outwit Korean pair of Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae 21-15,13-21, 21-16 in the men’s doubles final.
In the women’s doubles final, Japan’s Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto beat Kim Hye Jang and Kong Hee Young of South Korea 21-15 21-13. This is only the third tournament together for the Japanese combination with Igarashi, formerly known as Arisa Higashino, making a successful shift to women’s doubles from mixed doubles.
In the mixed doubles final, China’s Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin prevailed 21-18 21-17 over French combination of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue.
Axelsen vs Lee
Lee, 2019 Hong Kong open winner, had finished as runner-up in the last edition and his dream of winning the title remained unfulfilled after he went down in the final for the second time in two years.
Lee made a good start, opening up a 6-3 lead. But Axelsen found his rhythm back and slowly build up the momentum to gather a 11-8 advantage at the break. Lee kept fighting but couldn’t pose a real threat as Axelsen blunted his attack with his retrieval skills and took five game points and converted after Lee went long.
The script didn’t change despite the change of sides as Axelsen moved from 10-6 to 19-6 with a series of booming smashes to dismantle Lee’s defence and complete the win in no time.
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