Momota played in Malaysia for the first time since his career went into a tailspin two years ago as a result of a car accident there. The current Olympic champion from Denmark, Axelsen, dominated the Japanese star throughout, winning 21-4, 21-7 in just 34 minutes.
Momota, who is competing in his first final of the year after going on a tear of form, was greeted with a rousing welcome when he arrived at the Kuala Lumpur venue. However, the game quickly became one-sided as Axelsen took charge and scored points with a string of powerful smashes.
The first game ended quickly, and in the second Axelsen maintained the fast pace to make Momota commit a lot of unintentional mistakes.
The second-ranked player in the world Momota stated after the match that Axelsen’s “level was greater than I expected.”
“I believed I was improving in this competition, but today it got to be a little much for me. However, I will apply the knowledge I gained from competing in this significant final to future competitions,” the 27-year-old said.
This was Axelsen’s fifth triumph of the year. The Dane had already won two championships in Indonesia and two championships in Europe.
After winning the Malaysia Masters in January 2020, Momota was driving to the airport when he was involved in a collision that killed his driver. The Masters for this year will be held the following week.
Momota suffered from double vision and an eye socket fracture as a result. The Japanese great was a shell of his former self when he finally came back to action after a year away.
Last year’s Tokyo Olympics were a disaster for him, and this year he has failed to go past the first round in four of the five singles competitions he has competed in.
