Daily Times

TOKYO: Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen won his second badminton world title on Sunday, beating Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-5, 21-16 in the final in Tokyo. World number one Axelsen has lost only one singles match this season and was too much for 21-year-old rising star Vitidsarn, who was blown away in the first game. Axelsen, who won Olympic gold last year, also claimed the world title in Glasgow in 2017. The 28-year-old Dane has been in imperious form this week in Tokyo, reaching the final without losing a single game. He took control right from the start against a shell-shocked Vitidsarn and clinched the first game with a commanding smash. Vitidsarn made more of a contest of the second game but it was still not enough to stop Axelsen, who raised both arms and lay on his back after Vitidsarn’s final shot went long. The win gave Axelsen his sixth title of the season. World number 17 Vitidsarn was playing in his first world championships final, having knocked out Singapore’s defending champion Loh Kean Yew in the quarter-finals. Vitidsarn, a three-time junior world champion, was bidding to become Thailand’s first-ever senior men’s singles world champion. In women’s singles, Japan’s reigning champion Akane Yamaguchi was set to face China’s Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei in the final later Sunday.