Viktor Axelsen comes through first-round scare against compatriot Rasmus Gemke at Malaysia Open 2023
The world number 1 drops the opening game of his badminton season debut to his fellow Dane before dominating the decider to set up a second-round clash against Liew Daren
Badminton
Nobody said things come easy even for the badminton world number one and world champion, as Viktor Axelsen found out in his 2023 season debut on Tuesday (10 January).
The Dane, who is also the men's singles Olympic champion, dropped the opening game of his first-round Malaysia Open clash to compatriot Rasmus Gemke, ranked 20 places below him, and found himself in a tight second game with the score at 14–13 to the top seed Axelsen.
However, Axelsen kept calm and pulled away in the second, before dominating the deciding game to win 17-21 21-14 21-12 in one hour five minutes.
That means the first seed progresses to face home shuttler Liew Daren in the second round in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the men's draw, fourth seed Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei needed 78 minutes to wrap up a hard-fought 21-23 24-22 21-18 win over China's Shi Yuqi.
Only two seeds fell on the first day across the five categories. Women's singles fifth seed He Bingjiao of China was a high-profile casualty as she went out against Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 11-21 17-21.
Meanwhile in women's doubles, the Malaysian crowd were disappointed as Bulgaria's Stoeva sisters Gabriela and Stefani defeated the hosts' Pearly Tan / Thinaah Muralitharan 21-19 21-14.
First-round matches continue on Wednesday from 10am local time.