KUALA LUMPUR: World and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen is said to be near invincible. And Ng Tze Yong was not given a ghost of a chance at the All England yesterday.
But the ending was unbelievable. The great Dane was reduced to tears by the Malaysian newcomer who pulled off a famous victory in the prestigious tournament. And Axelsen, the defending champion, saw his crown taken away as early as the second round.
The last time Axelsen cried, it was tears of joy when he won his first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in in 2021.
This time it was tears of humiliation for the 29-year-old great Dane.
World No 28 Tze Yong versus World No 1 Axelsen. And the Malaysian threw the formbook out of the window at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Axelsen, the champion who is s always pursuing perfection, found failure hard to accept, found it difficult to come to terms with how he squandered two match-point opportunities at 20-19 and 21-20, after overturning a 19-15 deficit in the rubber.
And Tze Yong triumphed 21-15, 9-21, 23-21, making it a famous day for Malaysian badminton.
A teary Axelsen said at the post-match interview: "Well, you want to do well, right? I put everything into this, so of course I'm emotional.
"I want to congratulate Ng Tze Yong. I think he played a great game.
"I wanted to do better, but today it wasn't to be."
"And when you fail, it's tough obviously. There's a winner and there's a loser, and today Ng Tze Yong deserved to win.
"Unfortunately for me, it wasn't enough."
With this unlikeliest of victories, Tze Yong now joined the small list of special players who have beaten the near unbeatable Axelsen in the past 15 months. The three others were India's Lakhsya Sen (in the 2022 German Open semi-finals), Singapore's Loh Kean Yew (2022 Denmark Open (quarter-finals) and Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn (India Open final in January).