You won’t have heard of An Sai Lengthy, the double Olympic champion, however China has. And he may stake declare to being higher than the nice Lin Dan, and even the Chinese language gained’t thoughts a ponder over that debate. It’s the Mandarin identify adopted by Viktor Axelsen when he was 22 and have become proficient within the language, proficient sufficient to allure the Chinese language talking to them of their tongue, after dropping the Rio Olympics semifinal to Chen Lengthy.
The subsequent day, he had earned their ungrudging respect beating Lin Dan for the 2016 Olympics bronze. Over the following 8 years, by the point he turned 30, Axelsen had equalled Tremendous Dan to 2 Olympic titles, although his whole Video games medal depend was yet one more than Dan – because of himself, for Axelsen had denied the best Chinese language his third attainable medal at Rio, after golds at Beijing and London.
The World Championships depend remains to be closely skewed in favour of Lin Dan – his 5 world titles dwarfing out Axelsen’s 2. And the tremendous southpaw of China, maybe the participant with probably the most lasting game-recall throughout generations, took his nation to a staggering 6 Thomas Cups in comparison with simply the 1 from Axelsen. However nobody can deny that along with his superior Olympic medal depend (Lee Chong Wei has 3 too, however all silvers), Axelsen stomps into the controversy with a rightful declare to the ‘biggest’ tag.
The world will stay in thrall of the Lin Dan-Lee Chong Wei period, which is badminton’s greatest cult secret, whereas coinciding with the Federer-Nadal occasions in tennis. Badminton is a a lot quieter sport as a result of its Asian fan base, however even these outdoors the magnificent Asian shuttleverse who comprehend it edgeways, knew it solely for Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. Axelsen a.okay.a An Sai Lengthy, although, fetched up not too in another way than a Novak Djokovic, to ascertain a 3rd supremacy of his personal, and within the 2024 season with that Olympic gold at Paris, opened the tennis-drowsed eyes of the West to the brilliance of this sport.
From when Axelsen was getting sharp on his Mandarin – there’s a well-known incident of him responding to a Chinese language fan guffawing about his peak, in an elevator oblivious to him understanding her language, and startling her out of her wits. The allure and the offensive would each plunge Chinese language males’s singles badminton right into a flux with missed medals and misplaced dominance.
For one, Axelsen boasts of a win towards the magician Bao Chunlai, arguably their most fashionable participant. Then there’s the enterprise with Lin Dan, not simply denying him a medal, however a superior face to face file of 6-3. Maybe the one Chinese language who troubled Axelsen was Chen Lengthy, who beat him 14 occasions, and misplaced simply 6 – whereas delaying Axelsen’s elevation to the dominant beast he’s now. However even Chen Lengthy was humbled on the Tokyo Olympics, dropping to the Dane within the remaining.
At Paris, China’s males’s singles gamers drew a clean. And Shi Yuqi’s misfortune lies in him enjoying within the Axelsen period – he trails the Dane 3-6.
That’s An Sai Lengthy’s dominance over 3 generations of Chinese language high contenders – Lin Dan, the eventual gold nicked away from Chen Lengthy and an utter stranglehold over Shi Yuqi.
Mandarin may be the one overseas language he mastered, maybe strategically (for he has admitted to benefitting from understanding directions of Chinese language coaches who won’t instantly grapple with a 6’4″ European, with gray blue eyes understanding precisely what they’re hollering about). However Axelsen’s game-smarts went past – in his non permanent stint, residing and coaching in Dubai, he cleverly invited the Gen subsequent – Lakshya Sen (8-1), Kunlavut Vitidsarn (7-1), Loh Kean Yew (9-2), Lee Zii Jia (7-3) and various others, for brief sparring camps. And although he might need misplaced to them in inconsequential matches on the Tour, he by no means allowed them ‘juniors any leeway within the huge finals – All England and Olympics and World Championships.
Axelsen may be mentioned to have been on the proper place, on the proper time, given Kento Momota’s wretched luck (the Japanese was 14-3 up), and Lee Chong Wei’s exit (11-3 up). Lee Hyun-il, now Sindhu’s coach, beat Axelsen thrice, dropping simply as soon as, and although Srikanth (3-10 down) and Sen have abysmal information towards the nice Dane, India has a little bit of a gloat-over-the GoAT file — Parupalli Kashyap went 2-2 towards him, and HS Prannoy famously denied him the 2023 World Championship medal with a masterly tactical takedown within the quarters.
Axelsen is surprisingly but to face Chinese language Li Shifeng – modelled on Chen Lengthy, and that can be a matchup with loads of popcorn crunch. However he has knocked off Kodai Naraoka 6-0, finishing a complete chokehold over the yuppie, subsequent younger technology. They only don’t have his dedication and doggedness, as he can overpower them at their very own video games – as diverse as ultra-defensive Naraoka and hyper-attacking Lee Zii Jia. Nonetheless, the Malaysian actually acquired on Axelsen’s nerves on the 2021 All England remaining which Zii Jia gained in 3, together with a 30-29 first set, the place Axelsen made him labour over 8 gorgeous set factors.
Maybe the place Lin Dan scores over Axelsen is within the momentous faceoffs with Chong Wei, the rivalry elevating each to stardom past badminton’s diehards.
Viktor Axelsen has no foil, although it may be argued that he has breathtakingly muzzled your entire area along with his cautious dismantling of each challenger. His greatness lies in having the ability to shape-shift between totally different types, with immense shuttle management on his backhand entrance court docket play, financial system of actions and a very monster-smash that ends all resistance. In his effectivity he’s precisely like Lin Dan, although the Chinese language had a number of extra trick pictures and elegant abilities up his sleeve.
Tremendous Dan’s stature is such that it’s sacrilege to broach any identify in the identical breath. However the Tremendous Dane, with the Chinese language identify of An Sai Lengthy, will at all times have that further bronze.
