Olympic badminton champion Axelsen wins maiden Hong Kong Open title, Han takes women’s crown
Viktor Axelsen becomes first Danish player to lift men’s singles title in city since Peter Gade in 1997. Han Yue confirms rising-star status
Double Olympic badminton champion Viktor Axelsen cruised to his maiden Hong Kong Open title on Sunday, beating China’s Lei Lanxi 21-9, 21-12.
The Dane had not dropped a game all week in his first tournament since winning gold in Paris and took just 44 minutes to dispatch Lei 21-9, 21-12 at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
It was Axelsen’s second Badminton World Federation tour title this year after his win at the Malaysia Masters and he said he was “a bit surprised but happy”, because maintaining his form since the Olympics had been “stressful”.
“I managed to play very aggressively, but also with a great balance to my game,” he said.
World number 22 Lei, in only his second tour level final, made a bright start to both games, but the 26-year-old soon found it tough to keep pace with Axelsen, who became the first Dane to lift the men’s singles title in Hong Kong since Peter Gade in 1997.
In the women’s singles, China’s Han Yue confirmed her status as a rising star after the 24-year-old outplayed Indonesia’s unseeded Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-18, 21-7.
