Big brain play from Antonsen. We don't know if he has bad lungs from covid, but saving energy by not playing second set did work. Also it pissed off Axelsen who was visibly nervous. I don't think we can blame Antonsen for letting go of second set, if Axelsen wanted to exploit his stamina, he could purposefuly played longer rallies but he didn't. Hats off to Antonsen, most interesting and thrilling match so far.
Exactly, this. This is different from the 2016 Olympics where BWF screwed up the tournament format, that lead to the deliberate throws by multiple countries in Women's doubles. This is the case of Antonsen deciding on a strategy of winning the 1st set, conserving energy in the 2nd set (while wasting Viktor's energy in the 2nd set), and then Antonsen going full speed again in the 3rd set and using up the remainder of his energy. The umpire made a really bad call against Antonsen in the 2nd set. I feel BWF should sit down and explain to this umpire that he overstepped the line here.
Axelsen should have tried to play long rallies from the start of the match to try and outrun Antonsen who has a relatively poor fitness.
So, it is the opponent who need to break the mental strength of Axelsen to beat him !. Anyhow, his march towards in beating the record of Lindan did not fruitify. Poor Axelsen. He played everything perfect until this match.
Not everyone. Only obnxious, inelegant, or boring players/pairs. Wish I could find a stream of this XD - sucks being in the UK sometimes...
It's not. You just have to play well enough not to raise the suspicions of the umpire and/or referee!
Yeah . That will have worth some punt. Its crazy for a final price and also because of Antonsen just recovered from Covid.
Axelsen was looking flawless all three tournaments till this final. That last game was really where it all fell through, Viktor lost so much composure. Antonsen played well physically and mentally! This has to be one of the most unexpected results of 2021 so far.
To me today's result puts Axelsen's "dominance" during recent tournaments into right context. He was basically beating Chou Tien Chen, erratic Ginting and many lower ranked players for weeks. Well played by Antonsen though. There are so many forum members here who don't think he's a top-3 player. Personally I like his playing style, mid court cat'n mouse combined with sudden injections of pace.
Anders Antonsen creates huge upset to snatch jackpot in Bangkok, subdues more fancied fellow countryman Viktor Axelsen who has convincing result prior to finale. It’s All England champion who played quite carelessly and monotonous as Antonsen knows the answer to solve his opponent hard smashes with solid defense and nice placement. Antonsen redeems his setback in previous two S1000 events to top podium here.
I still peg Viktor as the 2nd favorite to win gold at the Olympics, and Antonsen probably the 3rd favorite, as of this moment. This is assuming that when Momota gets back to the circuit, he is playing at his 2018/2019 level of play. But who knows since Momota is coming back from an injury for the car accident, and then Momota got covid too (I believe covid can do permanent damage to the body, especially the lungs, in certain cases). For me, the last 3 tournaments had all the best men's singles player there, minus Momota, Chen Long, and Shi Yuqi. But the rest were there. And to be honest, I would put Viktor above Chen Long and Shi Yuqi at the moment, even though we haven't seen Chen Long and Shi Yuqi on the international circuit for some time. The last we saw of Chen Long, he was a shadow of his 2016 Olympic version. For Shi Yuqi, he hasn't been the same since his injury (but for a moment, Shi Yuqi was looking like the best in the world when he beat Momota at the World Tour Finals).
be consistent in their health protocols when it comes to deciding who must quarantine and/or withdraw. ie. hong kong withdrew in the first week because their opponents were 'high risk' yet allowed to continue. other high risk players were allowed to continue also. were the athletes/teams notified before coming to thailand 'high risk' players would be allowed to continue to play? no. arbitrary hotel room isolation rules. wavering on which tournaments would count for olympic qualifying. whether or not the olympics happen is beside the point. the continuous use of their illogical group play to knock-out stage. umpiring... no control in maintaining continuous play. the players controlled the pace with impunity.
Kento Momota is my favourite player post LD/LCW, if Momota played today against Antonsen he wouln't lost. I was happy that Viktor was getting better after the pause, but this shows he really needs to work more, maybe on tactics and mental side. If Anders played Kento, he would have been running around court for 1 hour 30 minutes, I mean, some matches you can win by raw power and some only with tactics and strategy. I hope Momota gets back even in better form, and meanwhile Axelsen gets even better so we can see some competitive matches, maybe with AA, CL, and SYQ too.
In what sense , they categorize players as high risk? I wanted to know because Covid-19 is everywhere. Then everybody is in the high risk category.
Imagine the added number of points for the koreans if chae had stronger wrist/fingers and could actually finish the shuttle
