Hong Kong Open 2024: Ginting Will Meet Axelsen

JAKARTA Anthony Sinisuka Ginting has qualified for the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open 2024 and will meet the former world number one, Viktor Axelsen.

Ginting reached the last four after defeating the host's representative, Jason Gunawan, in the rubber games 21-17, 14-21, and 21-18 on Friday, September 13, 2024, WIB night.

Ginting said that he had a lot of discussions with the coach to prepare for his first competitive clash with Jason. Everything went well.

"Only, maybe the implementation of the match, especially the second game, is not quite right. He also studied and prepared a strategy to fight me, his condition has changed quite a bit," Ginting said after the match.

The achievement was Ginting's first sweet result from two tournaments he played after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Before playing in Hong Kong, the badminton player who won the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics played at the Japan Open 2024 at the end of August 2024.

However, at that time his journey ran aground in the first half. At that time, he could not finish the match due to injury.

"Tomorrow (14/9/2024) I will meet Axelsen, of course there will be re-discussions and evaluations with the coach. However, now I want to focus on recovery first," said the 27-year-old badminton player.

The duel will be the 19th clash between Ginting and Axelsen. In the previous 18 meetings, Ginting was recorded as having a bad winning-loss record of 3-15.

Meanwhile, Ginting is the fifth and last representative to lock up the place in the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open 2024. In the men's singles, he followed in the footsteps of Jonatan Christie.

The other three representatives who qualified were the men's doubles duo Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani and the women's singles Putri Kusuma Wardani.