Former badminton world number one Viktor Axelsen suffered a surprise first-round exit at the All England Open, falling to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yi.
Lin edged a tight opening game before Axelsen responded with a dominant second set. However, the Dane struggled to maintain his form in the decider, allowing Lin to win six consecutive points on his way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory.
“If I don’t play my best, anyone can beat me,” said Axelsen, now ranked world number four. “My opponent played a fantastic game today. It was disappointing, but that’s how it is.”
Axelsen admitted to feeling the pressure of the tournament, saying, “I just tried to survive. There’s always a lot of pressure at the All England Open, and I got tense when my body wasn’t feeling great. It affected my entire game.”
In other matches, Japan’s Yushi Tanaka upset eighth seed Kodai Naraoka in an all-Japanese men’s singles clash.
In the women’s singles, defending champion and top seed An Se-young of South Korea cruised past China’s Gao Fangjie 21-16, 21-14. Former champion Chen Yufei also advanced, while China’s second seed Wang Zhiyi eliminated two-time winner Nozomi Okuhara.
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