Badminton: Axelsen and Yamaguchi reign at BWF World Tour Finals while China sweep doubles events

BANGKOK – Fittingly, four sets of world champions capped their respective brilliant seasons by capturing the season-ending Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals titles on Sunday.

Denmark’s world No. 1 and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen was near unplayable in his 21-13, 21-14 men’s singles win over Indonesia’s seventh-ranked Anthony Sinisuka Ginting at the Nimibutr Arena.

This is his fourth World Tour Finals triumph following wins in 2016, 2017 and 2021, which ties him with Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei for the most singles titles in the competition previously known as the Super Series Finals.

Even by his lofty standards, it has been a remarkable year for the Dane, who won eight out of 13 individual and team tournaments, losing only thrice and retiring twice in 54 matches.

He also welcomed the birth of his second daughter Aya in October and launched his biography Vindervilje, which in Danish means “will to win”.

He definitely showed plenty of that in front of his wife Natalia Rhode, two-year-old Vega and Aya and his fans in Bangkok, where he was taken the distance by Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in the semi-finals, before sealing the final with better control and sharper smashes.

After the win, he displayed a stunned look before throwing his racket into the rabid crowd.

Crediting his family and team, the 28-year-old told The Straits Times: “I have been able to find a really good way to do things and find balance on and off the court. I have had no injuries and been able to maintain really stable performances.

“Today, it was a bit easier to control the shuttles because the wind wasn’t as crazy... I was able to lift a bit more and put up a really strong defence. I was also on form for the offensive situations.

“Hopefully, 2023 will be a lot of good badminton for me. I missed the Singapore Open this year, but the plan is to return for sure.

“I love Singapore and hopefully I can go back and play some good badminton there.”

It was a tighter match in the women’s singles final as Akane Yamaguchi dug deep to beat Taiwanese world No. 3 Tai Tzu-ying 21-18, 22-20 for her second World Tour Finals triumph, adding to her 2017 victory.

Tai is known for her unpredictable and unorthodox winners that catch most opponents off guard. But Yamaguchi is of a different ilk, bouncing around the court with impressive speed and agility to retrieve most of Tai’s deft flicks and even counter-attacking off them.

The 25-year-old, who stands at 1.56m, said: “I am not tall, so speed and flexibility are important for me. Today, I was able to control the pace and exploit my opponent’s weakness. I’m happy to end a fruitful year on a high and I feel I can still get better in 2023.”

Meanwhile, it was a clean sweep for China in the doubles as they seek to re-establish their dominance after their players were mostly locked down in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi capped an outstanding first year as a men’s doubles pair by beating Indonesia’s world No. 6 Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan 21-17, 19-21, 21-12.

Rising from world No. 264 to 11th in 2022, the Chinese made five finals and won three. They are the only non-world champions to win in Thailand the past week and are set to crack the top 10 for the first time.

Liu, who won an Olympic silver with Li Junhui in 2021 before the latter retired, said: “It’s a great haul for us and gives us confidence that we are moving in the right direction.”

Ou added: “Our mindset and combination got better in the second half of the year. Today, we played with good speed and aggression to put pressure on the opponents.

“We made more mistakes in the second game to allow them to come back, but we learnt from that and stuck to our principles to win the match.”

In the women’s doubles, world champions Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan’s experience told as the top-ranked pair coasted past Thai sisters and world No. 13 Benyapa and Nuntakarn Aimsaard 21-13, 21-14 to add to World Tour Finals titles in 2016 and 2019.

Chen said: “We have been partners since our junior days in 2014. We are poles apart in terms of personality and preferences but we trust each other on court, which is the most important thing.”

World No. 3 mixed doubles pair Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong rounded off the event, beating Thailand’s top-ranked Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 21-19, 18-21, 21-13 for a perfect record of 10 wins in as many finals in 2022.

Zheng said: “It wasn’t easy playing against such a strong home pair in front of a noisy crowd. We stayed focused and patient and we are happy and grateful to end the season on a perfect note.”

The singles winners earned US$120,000 (S$163,000) while the doubles champions took home US$126,000 each.