World Badminton Championships First Round Surprise, Axelsen's World Rank 1 Is Eliminated By The Unseeded Kean Yew

Viktor Axelsen (Instagram @viktoraxelsen)

JAKARTA - A surprising result occurred in the first round of the men's singles event at the BWF World Championships, when unseeded badminton player Loh Kean Yew (Singapore) defeated world number one Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) in a match that took place in Spain, Monday night Huelva time.

Launching Antara, Sealsa, the rubber game victory for 54 minutes ended with a score of 14-21, 21-9, 21-6.

This result also recorded Kean Yew's reverence for the gold medal winner at the Tokyo Olympics, when the two met in the final round of the men's singles at the Indonesia Open 2021 at the end of November in Bali. Even so, Axelsen still outperformed his meeting record with a score of 4-1.

Axelsen performed well early in the game, immediately putting pressure on Kean Yew. Even though the 22nd-ranked badminton player in the world could provide resistance, he fell behind again in the second interval and seemed to be losing again to Axelsen.

However, Axelsen's game did not improve in the last two games, even creating an unbelievable African score considering he appeared in top condition at the Tokyo Olympics and won two titles from the Indonesia Open and BWF World Tour Finals.

Axelsen's only advantage in the second game was by scoring 1-0 over Kean Yew, but after that, he was left behind by his opponent whose score flew high away from Axelsen's position.

Likewise in the decisive game, Kean Yew's game became more and more unstoppable and ended Axelsen's hopes of winning the BWF World Championship for the second time.

In the second round, Kean Yew will meet Austrian badminton player Luka Wraber, which will be their first meeting.

Meanwhile, other Danish badminton players who qualified for the last 32 were Anders Antonsen, Rasmus Gemke, and Hans Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.

Third seed Antonsen advanced to the second round after beating Russian Olympic Committee badminton player Vladimir Malkov in two straight games 21-16, 21-13.

Then the 11th seed Gemke beat French badminton player Brice Leverdez also with two straight games 21-13, 21-7.

Meanwhile, Vittinghus had to struggle through the first round when faced by Tien Minh Nguyen from Vietnam. Vittinghus spent 62 minutes of the match to win the rubber game 21-16, 21-23, 21-10.