BADMINTON/Taiwan's Wang into quarterfinals after beating world No. 1 shuttler

Taipei, March 8 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton player Wang Tzu-wei (王子維) on Thursday upset world No. 1 shuttler Viktor Axelsen to advance to the men's singles quarterfinals at the YONEX French Open 2024.

Wang bested the formidable Dane 21-12, 21-17 after Axelsen seemed poise to mount a comeback midway through the second game.

In the opening game, Wang jumped to a 10-1 lead, and while Axelson narrowed that to five points at 12-7, the 29-year-old Taiwanese veteran, who has never ranked higher than 25th in his long career, held on to take the game.

He then raced out to an 8-1 lead to start the second game, but Axelsen picked up his pace and tied the game 10-10.

With Axelsen holding the momentum, Wang found his rhythm again with the scored tied at 12, winning seven of the next eight points to go up 19-13 to essentially seal the match.

Wang was grateful to have finally defeated Axelsen after losing to him all six times the two had played each other.

"He's world number one. He's really strong and I've never beaten him before," Wang was quoted as saying on the Badminton World Federation's website.

"So I was relaxed and tried to do my best on court, and I'm glad I did well today. He made some mistakes and I seized my chance. I didn't let him feel comfortable at all."

Axelsen gave credit to Wang for "playing great."

"He deserved the win," Axelsen said after the match. "I have nothing much to say other than I'm surprised by my own level. It was not what I hoped, especially as I was happy to be back after a long time due to injuries."

The Taiwanese will play eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand on Friday in the Super 750 tournament. The Thai won the 2023 BWF World Championships in Copenhagen and has won all five of his career matches against Wang.

Aside from Wang, Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) and the men's doubles duo of Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Yang Po-hsuan (楊博軒) have also advanced to the quarterfinals at the French Open.

Tai will play against Aya Ohori of Japan in the women's singles quarterfinals. She barely beat Ohori at the French Open in October 2023 and lost to her earlier that month at the Asian Games.

Lee and Yang, who won the German Open earlier this month, will take on seventh seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia.

The annual French Open was moved up from October to March this year to pave the way for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris in July.