At the Danish Open, this is the match that everyone was waiting for this Thursday, October 17. On one side of the net, the country’s and world badminton star Viktor Axelsen, 30 years old, world number 2, Olympic singles champion in Tokyo then in Paris. On the other, Norman Alex Lanier, 19, winner of a Super 1000 in Japan at the end of August, already on the verge of the world top 20 and a great, well-identified hope to reach the heights of his sport in the coming years.
Axelsen vomited during the second set
The round of 16 of this Super 500 ultimately ended with a taste of unfinished business. While the player from Dives-sur-Mer had won a tight and high-flying first set (21-19), the Dane showed a first big sign of weakness at 3-1 in the following set, suffering from pain in his back. stomach and feeling like vomiting.
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He finally surrendered a few minutes later, at 11-7 in favor of Alex Lanier. A resident of Insep, the Calvadosian will return to the court on Friday, facing the Singaporean Kean Yew Loh (world No. 11) in the quarter-final. His week in Denmark should already allow him to continue his rise in the world rankings, while Toma Junior Popov recently reached the best world ranking ever obtained by a French player (world no. 18).
