Danish badminton ace Axelsen clinches Indonesia Open men’s singles title

Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen clinched the Indonesia Open men’s singles title after beating Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew in the final on Sunday.

The 27-year-old scored a victory against Loh 21-13, 9-21, 21-13 in an intense 59-minute game in the badminton tournament held on the palm-fringed holiday island of Bali.

Axelsen’s victory came after his compatriot Anders Antonsen was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an injury in his right chest.

In the men’s doubles, hometown heroes Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukomuljo won the title after defeating Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi who stunned them in the final of Indonesia Masters a week earlier.

The world’s number one, affectionately known by fans as The Minions redeemed themselves from last week’s defeat by beating the Japanese pair 21-14, 21-18 in a 38-minute game.

“The key to our victory is that we’ve learned from last week’s defeat… we evaluated our mistakes and we fixed them,” Gideon said after the match.

In the women’s singles, South Korea’s An Se-young secured the title after beating second-seeded Ratchanok Intanon from Thailand 21-17, 22-20.

The 19-year-old An also won the women’s singles title at the Indonesia Masters last week.

“An was very solid and clever in using the opportunities presented,” Intanon said after the match.

In the women’s doubles, Indonesia’s Olympics gold medallists Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu suffered defeat against Japan’s Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida 19-21, 19-21.

The Indonesia Open takes place from November 23-28 and the season-ending BWF Tour finals run from December 1 to December 5.

Tour badminton has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with recent games being the first tournaments in Asia in almost a year and taking place without fans in a Covid-secure bubble.