Dubai: World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark fought off a tenacious challenge to beat Malaysia’s World No. 2 Lee Chong Wei and to lift his second consecutive BWF Super Series Finals trophy at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Sunday.
The firs-set was an incredible topsy-turvy affair as Lee Chong Wei suddenly came back to life from 3-7, 17-18 and raced to take game 21-19. Lee managed to reel off five straight points to tie the score at 19-19 in the second set, but Axelsen saliently proved that he is the best of his generation to hold off the late surge from Lee after narrowly scraping past the Malaysian 21-19 to force a decider.
Lee was clearly lack of stamina in the decider while playing against the World No. 1 Axelsen who could out grind him. Axelsen had seized a seemingly commanding lead throughout the third set and Lee simply couldn’t find answer to Axelsen’s delicacy of touches, allowing Axelsen to place the shuttlecock pretty much anywhere he wanted. Lee soon found his groove as he narrowed the gap from 11-19 to 15-19, but it was too little too late as the fourth seed could not halt Axelsen’s indomitable momentum to go down 21-15.
Axelsen took home US$80,000 with his victory while Lee pocketed US40, 000 for his runner-up finish.
In men’s doubles, despite losing in quarter-final at the World Championship in August, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon set the record straight that they are by far the best men’s doubles pair in the world by demolishing World Champions Zhang Nan/Liu Cheng of China 21-16, 21-15 in just 39 minutes.
“This victory was really special, not only it’s our seventh Super Series title this season, it’s also our second three-peat this year. It’s really a miracle,” said Sukamuljo. The Indonesian pair had won three consecutive Super Series champions including All England, India Open, and Malaysia Open to start their 2017 season. They won the Japan Super Series on September 24th, and were able to string together another three straight titles at China Open, Hong Kong Open and the BWF Super Series Finals.
