Badminton

Axelsen excited to face Chong Wei again

BANGKOK: World No 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark is eager to face Lee Chong Wei in Wednesday’s Thomas Cup Group D tie.

Chong Wei, 36, hopes to motivate his team by delivering the first point, while Axelsen will also be looking at maintaining his winning streak over the Malaysian.

Axelsen has not lost to Chong Wei in the last three meetings since his defeat to the Malaysian at the 2016 Thomas Cup in Kunshan, China.

"Chong Wei is a great player, and I am always looking forward to playing him," said Axelsen, who returned from an injury last month.

"It is been awhile since I last played him, so it will be good to see how it goes tomorrow. The last couple of times I played him was under very different conditions. Dubai and Japan are really big halls, but the wind inside this hall (IMPACT Arena) is really strong," said Axelsen.

On whether his injury would affect his game in any way, Axelsen, who bagged the European men's singles title last month, added: "Of course when you are out of the game for so long you think about it, but I am sure I can overcome it. Hopefully, I can remain injury free for a long time."

Apart from Axelsen, Denmark are also expected to play Anders Antonsen in second singles, and either Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus or Jan Jorgensen in third singles.

Malaysia are expected to field Lee Zii Jia and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin.

On Tuesday, both Denmark and Malaysia recorded 5-0 wins over Russia and Algeria respectively.

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