China's Chen Long won the gold for men's singles in the BWF World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo : Reuters)
China's Chen Long emerged victorious over Denmark's Viktor Axelsen and took the 2015 MetLife BWF SuperSeries Australian Badminton Open crown for the men's singles title on Sunday with a score of 21-12, 14-21 and 21-18.
Chen took the first game at 21-12 despite Axelsen's eager attacks to win against the world's number one. While Axelsen pushes the shuttle wide attacking the Chinese star, Chen maintained his focus and used his experience to strike when needed.
According to Chen, men's singles "is very hard" for the past period, saying that "if you loose the first [game], you might lose everything."
Asked about his principle, he shared that a player must "prepare for everything" as "it doesn't matter if you are number one or number two."
Chen fell flat on his feet on Game 2 after Axelsen changed his strategy to match with the Chinese player's skills. Rather than raw power, soft drop shots led to Axelsen's six-point lead at 14-19, which eventually resulted in a 14-19 match in favor of Denmark.
"I was quite tense in the first game, but I just tried to focus on things I could do to get into a good rhythm," Axelsen shared.
Tied at 1-1, the Game 3 of the China-Denmark badminton match served as the best in the tournament. Chen opened an early lead of 4-1 after regaining his nerves.
Though Axelsen took a lead at 10- 11 after forcing Chen to make uncharacteristic errors, Chen responded with experience and ultimately won over Axelsen in spite of a very close fight, tallying a score of 21-18.
A deep smash from China's Chen Long sent him to victory after Viktor Axelsen tried to narrow down his opponent's lead, making the Chinese star the 2015 MetLife BWF SuperSeries Australian Badminton Open champ, men's singles category.
