Viktor Axelsen’s withdrawal from Indonesia Masters a form of ‘Silent Protest’?

Jakarta: World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen has to retire from the second round of ongoing Indonesia Masters, citing a left ankle injury on Thursday.
The top men’s singles player from Denmark lost to Japan’s Kazumasa 20-22 in the first set, and decided to retire when he was trailing 7-11 in the second set at the Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta.

“I felt some pain on my left ankle when I was returning a shot in the first set. I decided to retire mid-way in the second set. It was a difficult decision, I hope the injury is not that serious,” said Axelsen.

After Lin Dan’s second consecutive first round exit on Wednesday, and the absence of Lee Chong Wei at Indonesia Masters, it has appeared that top badminton players in the world were demonstrating their disapprovals of the revamped Badminton World Federation (BWF) rules which required the top 15 players in the singles categories, and 10 in the doubles categories to have to take part in at least 12 tournaments in the 2018 calendar.

The fact that BWF is forcing top players to play at least a dozen of tournaments per the 2018 calendar will soon reach a boiling point, as top players are bowing out early from the tournaments, badminton fans disappointed by early loses or absence of their favorite badminton stars, and worst, if BWF started slapping players with hefty fines, the players are going to participate (because they have no choice) but keep losing so that they would ranked below World’s top 15 in the singles and below World’s top 10 in the doubles to avoid having have to take part in so many tournaments. That would make badminton a terrible sport to watch, and when things continue down and out of control, it would be extremely hard for BWF to pull the sport out of it.

BadmintonPlanet.com suggests that since it’s still early of the season, BWF should really start revising and re-adjusting its 2018 calendar and don’t wait for the damage done to badminton to get worse.