Axelsen emphasises importance of staying humble

New Delhi, Dec 12: Having turned nearly everything he touched this year to gold, Viktor Axelsen heads into the season’s final event – the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2021 – looking set to add another story to an already imposing edifice. With a full set of major titles, there’s nothing that he hasn’t achieved before. In 2021, the Dane achieved a completeness in game that reflected in him winning seven titles, while winning 61 of 64 completed matches – an astonishing statistic by any measure. Yet, Axelsen talked of staying humble even as he tries to replicate his success at forthcoming events. “Definitely things have been going my way this year,” said the Dane. “I’ve been able to produce good results in almost everything I’ve played. So I’m definitely humble and proud about that. I’m trying to keep both feet on the ground and remember what worked throughout the year and what I have to do in order to produce these good results and I try to do them over and over again and I will try to do that again this week. But there have been many tournaments for me, so I will try to take it one day at a time.” Axelsen will look to become the first player to win both the Olympic gold and the World Championships in the same calendar year, a rare opportunity that is also open to Chinese Taipei’s Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin, with the three other Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallists having not arrived in Huelva. Coming at the end of a busy season, Axelsen stated that he was in good shape, with no injury worries. “You realistically cannot peak at so many tournaments all the time. It’s not possible. So I just try to do maintenance, so to say. Just try to maintain the level of play I have, physically and also mentally. Because there is a lot of pressure every time you go on court. So it’s a balance and I think I’ve managed to do my best in that regard. “This time it’s definitely a different feeling compared to what you are used to. Usually for the World Championships you have a bit of a training stint beforehand and you know everybody is coming in their best shape. However this time around many of the Asian players have been travelling since September and we have been playing a lot of tournaments as well, so it’s definitely a different situation right now. But I’m really keen to get going and hopefully I can bring my best game.”