Axelsen is the favorite since the beginning; he is currently sitting on the world’s No. 1 men’s singles player rank while Jojo sits on the 14 th position, furthermore Axelsen also came out as the No. 1 seed for the tournament.

“I admit, Viktor Axelsen is much better than I do as he is very good on his strokes, and he can be very calm sometimes, because if a player plays against a much better player his mindset can be bothered,” said Jojo during press conference after the match.

Restraining himself from making the same mistake, Jojo tried to rise on the second set. Consequently, he managed to lead the set until point No. 11. From that moment on, Jojo always lead the game through numerous rallies between the two until point No. 18. However, Axelsen managed to equalize the score to 18-18. Thenceforth, Jojo seemed bothered and always rushed himself to grab any points possible, but instead of gaining any points, Jojo lost a point and let Axelsen lead the game. On the contrary, the situation was getting better for Axelsen, where he remained calm and managed to control the game. During last rallies of the game, Jojo managed to equalize the score to 19-19, but Victor fought back and took the 19-20 lead before he eventually won the game with the score of 19-21.

“On the first set I was still adjusting myself to the right pattern, there are few moments where I doubted my shots, but this kind of problem is not new for me, to be honest this is a homework for the coaching staffs and I, we are still seeking on how to use more than just regular strokes and how to control my mindset during intense matches like this,” he added.

Jojo’s main problem has always been his mindset of the game, there are several games where Jojo are leading the game but in the end he always fail to win the game. This is homework for both Jojo and the coaching staffs to avoid the mistake to happen again in the future.