2020 in Review: Viktor’s Delight
COVID-19 the spoilsport robbed many athletes of normality and chance for sporting acclaim in 2020. Viktor Axelsen is one of the lucky few to, comparatively, experience a year to remember for the right reasons.
· PREM KUMAR
No other shuttler had a more blistering start to the HSBC BWF World Tour 2020 season before it broke down in March – the Danish giant making the final of all bar one of the four tournaments he participated in.
The rare stutter came at January’s DAIHATSU Indonesia Masters, where home boy Anthony Sinisuka Ginting got the better of him in the last four. The 26-year-old’s opening salvo at the season-opening PERODUA Malaysia Masters a week earlier was close to being resounding as he cruised to the final but in Kento Momota, Axelsen found a player at the top of his game and settled for second best.
In all, he took two titles; first the Barcelona Spain Masters in February then the one that matters most to many players – the Super 1000 YONEX All England Open three weeks later. That triumph ended Denmark and Europe’s 21-year wait for a men’s singles winner at the tournament.