Anders Antonsen won his all-Danish battle with Viktor Axelsen to reach his sixth final of the year at the China Masters 2024 on Saturday (23 November).
The double Olympic badminton champion saved four match points, but Antonsen finally clinched victory 16-21, 21-9, 22-20 after an hour and 21 minutes in Shenzhen.
Having led 11-9 at the mid-game interval, Antonsen had little response to the double Olympic champion after the restart. Axelsen was especially impressive in defence, dealing with his compatriot’s aggression and forcing errors.
The second game started in similarly tight fashion, but Axelsen suddenly lost his way with Antonsen winning 10 points out of 11 to lead 16-8. And after levelling the match, the 27-year-old took control of the decider with five consecutive points for an 11-5 advantage at the changeover.
Despite looking a little short of peak physical fitness, Axelsen was able to string together five points in a row to close the gap to two. Antonsen held firm and, after stopping to replace a damaged shoe, managed to bring up four match points.
Antonsen committed a fault on the first, just reaching over the net for a putaway. And after two misses, he threw down his racket with disgust having left an Axelsen lift which dropped in. But the third seed then made a successful review for an overhead which just clipped the line, and then converted defence into attack with style to clinch his fourth win in 10 meetings.
His opponent in Sunday’s final will be Jonathan Christie after the Indonesian star knocked out top seed Shi Yuqi in straight games.
Christie sent the world number one from the People’s Republic of China packing 21-17, 21-16 to the disappointment of the home crowd.
Paris 2024 gold medallist An Seyoung made it to the women’s final after dispatching Japan’s Miyazaki Tomoka 21-5, 22-20. She will face Gao Fangjie on Sunday.
