In the third and last match of the afternoon's session, Viktor Axelsen succeeded against world no. 6, Boonsak Ponsana, whom he beat in straight games.
19 year old Dane Viktor Axelsen was up against Boonsak Ponsana from Thailand in the third and last match of the afternoon session at the Yonex Copenhagen Masters.
He had the chance to make it three out of three Danish victories, seeing that both Mads Pieler Kolding/Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen had won their respective matches earlier.
A straight game victory
After having been behind in the beginning, Viktor Axelsen took the lead halfway through the first game at 11-10. It was close all the way to the end of the game, but ultimately the narrow lead benefited the young Dane, who won by 21-19.
In the second game, Boonsak came out better and was ahead almost the entire game, leading by both 11-9 and 14-12. But towards the end, the Dane came back and took the lead once again. Out of the last thirteen points the Dane managed to win nine of them and thereby claim the victory in straight games. The second game ended 21-18.
- Glad to beat Boonsak on home court
Unsurprisingly, Viktor Axelsen was quite content with how the match turned out for him.
- I'm very glad now, naturally. I think it's great to be able to beat a player like Boonsak on home court in front of a crowd like this, and I'm glad to get more than one match in the tournament, Viktor Axelsen said after his victory before continuing:
- I tried to maintain focus throughout the match, even though it was close and I was a bit behind in the second game. I just concentrated on doing my thing, and that went pretty well I think. I took the net away from him and thereby got the chance to play aggressively with angles from the back court, and that made the difference.
Boonsak Ponsana agrees on that part – the Dane won the net.
- I think it was very hard to play with him today. He was good at the net, and made me commit some mistakes there, and I couldn't get control, the Thai said after the match.