Far from his physical and mental best, Viktor Axelsen managed to dredge the deep reserves within himself to make the title round of the YONEX-SUNRISE India Open for the sixth time.

Frequently misfiring his smashes, wincing in pain and frustration, and angry at his mistakes, Axelsen appeared at times to be losing the plot against a sharp Jonatan Christie, but the Dane still had enough in the tank to outgun the Indonesian and make the final.

There was plenty of frustration evident as he struggled in the opening game – even earning a warning from the umpire for breaking his racket – and Axelsen acknowledged the lapse.

“First of all, I’m a human being – what you see is what you get. I’m not a robot, sometimes my emotions boil over a little bit, but that’s me, and I’m not proud of breaking the racket, but I’m not a machine and I was really struggling in there today. I felt frustrated because I felt I was playing a good game, but then suddenly everything fell apart and Christie stepped up and I was so frustrated. But I managed to find a way back somehow, I don’t know how, obviously I’m super proud.”

“Definitely mentally, physically also…. I’ve had close to zero preparation before this. To be in the final is way over my expectations and that’s why I was celebrating so much.

Rankireddy/Shetty Fall

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty rode the wave of home support to get a strong start against Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin before the Malaysians turned on their A game, with Goh’s brilliance at the net stopping the Indians in their tracks.

The Malaysians trapped the Indians into short, flat exchanges, and with the shuttle playing fast, the home favourites couldn’t get a grip on the proceedings.

“They took us by surprise,” admitted Shetty.

“We’ve played them multiple times, but this is the first time we saw a very different game. Especially in the first two-three strokes. We were able to control it in the beginning, but maybe if we could have got on-two points here and there, it could’ve been different. Thy got confident in the flick serve which worked well for them.”

“It’s about confidence, they are good at fast strokes,” added Rankireddy. “The shuttles were fast so we couldn’t open up and we had to play the flat game. We are tall and have to bend and that’s not our game.”

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