Paris [France], August 5 : Denmark badminton star Viktor Axelsen managed to defend his men's singles title at the ongoing Paris Olympics, defeating Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final on Monday.
In the title clash, Viktor, ranked world number two was extremely dominant and completed a straight-set win against his Thai opponent by 21-11, 21-11.
Axelsen just became the second shuttler to repeat the men's singles title win after the legendary Chinese player Lin Dan, who secured the top title in 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.
Viktor sealed his place in the final with a win over India's Lakshya Sen in the semifinals yesterday.
Despite facing a higher-ranked player, the world number 22 Lakshya matched the world number two's intensity really well for a good chunk of the match. At one point, having won six points in a row, Lakshya was leading with a scoreline of 15-9 in the first game. Axelsen made a strong comeback and that combined with some unforced errors, helped the Olympic champion bag the first game 22-20.
In the second game, Lakhsya was fighting really hard, leading by 7-0 at one point. But the Olympic champion Victor showcased his big match temperament by making a strong turnaround to win the game by 21-14 and reaching the gold medal match in 54 minutes.
Coming to Lakshya, his campaign concluded on a disappointing note after he narrowly missed out on the bronze medal in the men's singles event at the ongoing Paris Olympics on Monday.
Lakshya, just like many other Indian athletes, stood on the cusp of making history at the Paris Olympics. He was in contention for becoming the first Indian shuttler to win a medal in the men's singles event at the Olympics. However, he came close but ended up too far from etching his name in the history books following his 21-13, 16-21, 11-21 loss against Malaysia's Zii Jia Lee and finished fourth in the event.
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