The quarter-finals for the CELCOM AXIATA Malaysia Open 2019 came to a close today. With tricky conditions in the hall acting as a leveller, many matches were very tightly fought.
Viktor Axelsen’s brilliant run finally came to an end today, having won the Indian Open, and seemingly carrying this momentum eastwards into Malaysia.
His opponent today was Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, who caused the shock of the tournament yesterday, having beaten world number one Kento Momota in straight games. Although he faced a tough challenge in an Axelsen who seemed to be nearly back to his top form, and the lingering fact that he has never beaten the Dane before.
However, Christie continued to show great composure around the net, took charge in the rallies and displayed fantastic defensive skills when dealing with Axelsen’s sharp attack. He sealed his place in the semi-final with a very tidy 21-18, 21-19 victory. Commenting after the match, Axelsen said
-I lost out to a well playing Jonatan Christie. Tricky conditions in there, and Christie controlled it better than I did.
Another quarter-final
In the Mixed Doubles, England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith reached yet another quarter-final to continue their terrific form in 2019. They were unable to make it third time lucky against the number four seeds from Thailand, Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai. It was another two game victory for them, 21-14, 21-12.