With the 2021 Sudirman Cup group stage all over, the Danish team advanced to the quarterfinals as the second place in Group C. Axelsen has been silently making an impact towards the final step of his career Grand Slam.
In the 2016 Rio Olympics badminton men's singles bronze medal match, Axelsen, who was only 22 years old at the time, defeated Lin Dan and won an Olympic bronze medal. The moment he won the game, Axelsen held his head in pain and looked in disbelief. Three months ago in Kunshan, Jiangsu, Axelsen, as the first singles player, won the Thomas Cup for the first time. That was the first step in Axelsen's career Grand Slam journey.
At the 2017 Glasgow World Championships, Axelsen defeated Chen Long and Lin Dan in the semi-finals and finals, becoming his first individual world champion.
In the two years after
, Axelsen underwent ankle surgery, and suffered from a series of minor injuries such as back injuries and pollen allergies . He never regained his peak form in 2017, and the world badminton world entered a new era. "The Era of Momota Kento".
Until 2020, when Momota Kento suffered a car accident, Axelsen gradually regained his former state. At the 2020 All England Open, Axelsen swept and Zhou Tiancheng 2-0, winning back the men's singles championship for Denmark after 21 years.
In 2021, at the Tokyo Olympics, which was postponed for one year, Momota Kento, who was determined to win the men's singles gold medal, was in a sluggish state due to a car accident and the new crown, and stopped in the group stage. Facing the aging Chen Long in the final, Axelsen firmly seized the opportunity, defeated Chen Long 2-0, and won the Olympic gold medal.
Only then did people realize that although Axelsen had never dominated the men's singles arena and never created his own era, he had quietly collected the Thomas Cup, World Championships, All England championships and Olympic champion, career Grand Slam, only one Sudirman Cup is missing!
So, a person's success depends not only on personal efforts, but also on the historical process. In the post-Lin and Lee era, Axelsen has this ability. At every important moment in his career, he can adjust to his best competitive state to seize the opportunity that may only come once in a lifetime.
Although the Danish team lacks sufficient competitiveness in the other four categories except men's singles, it will be difficult for Axelsen to win the Sudirman Cup, the last step of the Grand Slam. However, in this year's Sudirman Cup , the major powers did not send their strongest lineups, and the Danish team is not completely hopeless. After all, in the 2016 Thomas Cup, many people did not expect the Danish team to win the final championship.
