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Why Pros Struggle Against Victor Lai #badminton #indonesia #bwf
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0:00
Viktor Axelsen won his quarterfinal
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match against Toma Junior Popov at the
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Indonesia Open.
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And here's what makes him so hard to
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play against. In a venue like the Istora
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Senayan, which is drifty and fast,
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players will often find difficulty in
0:12
controlling the height and length of
0:14
their shots.
0:15
Thus, the game completely shifts to the
0:17
net.
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Players begin to focus more on closing
0:19
into the net with the objective to take
0:21
the net as high as possible to initiate
0:23
shots like spin nets, drives, or flat
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pushes to put pressure on their
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opponent.
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Viktor Axelsen, however, takes full
0:31
advantage of this. What he is extremely
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good at is punishing the opponent's
0:35
attempts at changing speed.
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The thing that is not talked about that
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much is the risks of injecting pace into
0:41
the rally. When you speed up in the
0:43
rally, you change your own rhythm and
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give up your position if your opponent
0:47
is ready to counter. On many occasions,
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Toma would actually be the one
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initiating the pressure, but Viktor is
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able to completely flip the pressure
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back onto Toma because of his rhythm and
0:57
readiness to counter Toma's injection of
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speed.
1:00
Take a look at these two rallies where
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Toma initiates the aggression with
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drives or flat pushes and Viktor Axelsen
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punishes.
1:10
And if you want to learn more about why
1:12
Viktor Axelsen's style makes the pros
1:15
struggle, click to watch it here.
#Sports