Axelsen puts his health above accomplishments

PETALING JAYA: For Denmark’s world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen (pic), nothing is more important than his health.

The 29-year-old Axelsen has been dealing with lower leg and left foot injuries since the Denmark Open last month.

These injuries have led to him conceding a walkover to Malaysia’s world No. 11 Lee Zii Jia in the last 16 of the Denmark Open.

Although Axelsen participated in last week’s French Open, he was forced to retire during the opening match against world No. 20 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong after losing the first game 17-21.

Despite nursing some lingering injuries, Axelsen achieved a significant milestone by marking his 100th consecutive week as the world No. 1 in the men’s singles last week.

While this was a noteworthy accomplishment, Axelsen is aware that he should not take the injuries lightly and his main focus is on regaining his health before making his return to competitive action in the upcoming Japan Masters from Nov 14-19 and China Masters (Nov 21-26).

“It’s a great milestone,” said the two-time world champion, who has held the coveted top position in the world rankings for a total of 150 weeks.

“100 is a nice number and to surpass that is a big milestone for me.

“It gives me motivation to reach more weeks as world No. 1, but for now, my main goal is to get healthy.

“My body is not feeling really well right now.

“I had confidence I could finish (Denmark Open) but my back also started tensing up and for some reason, my body doesn’t allow me to play matches right now, so I’ll be ready for Japan and China.”

Axelsen has the luxury of concentrating on his recovery without the concern of his rankings declining, given his comfortable lead in the rankings with 101,355 points, which is 14,744 points ahead of Indonesia’s world No. 2 Anthony Ginting.