Anders Antonsen takes over second place in the world rankings from Viktor Axelsen, who slips down to third.
Things are going well for the Danish badminton player Anders Antonsen, and this can be seen in the latest world rankings, where he grabs second place from fellow countryman Viktor Axelsen.
The upturn comes after Antonsen’s triumph at the weekend, where he swept to the top in the Super 750 tournament China Masters.
In the semi-final, Antonsen won a terrific Danes duel in three sets over Axelsen.
Antonsen has taken second place in the world ranking once earlier in his career. It was in October 2022 that he held the position for four weeks.
He has yet to try to top the rankings.
2024 started terrifically for Antonsen, but shortly after the Olympics he broke off the collaboration with his coach Joachim Persson, when Antonsen allegedly saw him gambling money on a match, in a tournament he was in.
It caused unrest and uncertainty about the coaching situation, as Antonsen, like Viktor Axelsen, has stepped out of the association’s training to create his own setup.
At the beginning of October, his older brother, Kasper Antonsen, started as the new coach.
With the new coaching setup, Antonsen won the Denmark Open in October, before reaching the top in China at the weekend.
Viktor Axelsen, who defended his Olympic title in August, is out of the top two in the world rankings for the first time since February 2021. In June, he was knocked out of the top spot, which he had occupied for 131 consecutive weeks before then.
It was Chinese Shi Yuqi who pushed Axelsen off the throne, and the Chinese continues to occupy the puppet place.
