KUALA LUMPUR: The Petronas Malaysia Open semi-final between China's Shi Yu Qi and Denmark's Viktor Axelsen had all the makings of a major final, but in the end there can only be one winner.
On Saturday, Yu Qi ended Axelsen's reign as defending champion when he carved out a 21-12, 19-21, 21-17 win in a 71-minute slugfest at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil.
Yu Qi will now try to deny another Dane - Anders Antonsen - from making it three straight Malaysia Open men's singles titles for Denmark, when he takes on the former European champion in the final on Sunday.
World No. 9 Antonsen made easy work of Taiwan's Lin Chun Yi 21-16, 21-7 in the semi-finals.
For the record, Yu Qi can also become the first China player since Lin Dan to clinch the men's singles crown, after the five-time world champion won it back in 2019.
"Axelsen is currently the top player in men's singles badminton, and he was the defending champion.
"What I needed to do was to challenge him, so mentally, I had some advantage.
"However, due to his height advantage, I still faced challenges."
On the possibility of becoming the first China men's singles player since Lin Dan to win the crown, Yu Qi replied: "Lin Dan performed well in Malaysia at that time but I also think our Chinese team's performance in Southeast Asia is not that great.
"Having already defeated a strong opponent to reach the final, I will continue to challenge myself tomorrow.
"I need to be a little more daring."
Meanwhile, Axelsen took the defeat gracefully and admitted that it just wasn't his day.
"Well, I think the most you can ask of a player is to do the best with what he has on the day.
"I did everything I could mentally and physically but I haven't been feeling the best this week; I haven't been feeling that comfortable.
"To play a semi-final and to play like I did today, realistically I always want to win but it was a rightful winner today.
"All credit to Yu Qi, I think he was the better player,"
Axelsen also shared that he will need to assess his knee after taking a knock in the second game before deciding on his India Open participation next week.
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Men's singles: Shi Yu Qi (Chn) bt Viktor Axelsen (Den) 21-12, 19-21, 21-17; Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Lin Chun Yi (Tai) 21-16, 21-7.
Men's doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind) bt Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae (Kor) 21-18, 22-20; Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang (Chn) bt Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (Jpn) 21-12, 19-21, 21-13.
Women's singles: Tai Tzu Ying (Tai) bt Chen Yu Fei (Chen) 17-21, 21-15, 21-18; An Se Young (Kor) bt Zhang Yi Man (Chn) 21-17, 21-11.
Women's doubles: Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning (Chn) bt Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi (Jpn) 21-11, 21-16; Zhang Shu Xian-Zheng Yu (Chn) bt Baek Ha Na-Lee So Hee (Kor) 21-17, 21-17.
Mixed doubles: Kim Won Ho-Jeong Na Eun (Kor) bt Terry Hee-Jessica Tan (Sin) 21-16, 21-16; Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Jpn) bt Jiang Zhen Bang-Wei Ya Xin (Chn) 21-15, 12-21, 21-15.