Anders Antonsen & his ambles and rambles towards taking on the Great Dane mantle in Badminton
The greatness-half of it is still work in progress. The Dane-ness, Anders Antonsen clarified to the BWF after winning the Malaysian Super 1000 title earlier last month, was never quite gone. He said his communication had been all scrambled when conveying to fans he’d left Denmark for Dubai, and was in fact, camped at Copenhagen where he had an apartment. The prodigal never left, the going-pro rebellion never bubbled. “It’s my mistake that it was thought I was moving to Dubai. But that actually never happened,” he would say.
The Great Dane crown in recent years in mens singles badminton, has had some severely serious holders – from Peter Gade to Viktor Axelsen. Antonsen is expected to slip into the groove as next in line – train like a maniac, play a taut, controlled game like a champion, say clipped lines to the media revealing nothing just like the Chinese. Also, strut about and offer the Asian contenders regular reminders of the other continent with its doughty challengers, who are Norse code for pirates or raiders of titles.
Axelsen is reigning Olympic champion, tall and powerful, though the aura is waning and the stomp isn’t stomping, through 2023 with an irritating foot injury. But Axelsen can be expected to snarl all the way to Paris 2024, protecting his greatness. Antonsen, on the other hand, is just a tad wild, and candid and blurts out unfiltered gems though his title count is on the rise, and he’s flirting with greatness on the court. He’s trying to complete what Jan O Jorgensen couldn’t, while being just as crazy and talented.
He’ll not offer enough clichéd material to LinkedIn essayists or corporate honchos mining sport for armchair inspiration and leadership notes. But in his own convoluted, charismatic and utterly disarming way, Antonsen might be the most relatable role model for teens growing themselves a game face and a game growl and a persona of evolved professionalism. He’s authentic and comes across as someone who’s figured out his own way to reach the top tier, shrugging off errors during the trials.
At Malaysia after his breakthrough title, he was simply asked how he planned to celebrate. He launched into an entire history of his celebrations. “Back in the days before I was a proper athlete, it would be with some alcohol and some cigar and stuff. I don’t know. I’ve become a bit boring in my older days. I’m only 26, but,” he would clarify about the adulting meter. “We’ll wait and see. Last time I smoked a cigar was post Denmark Open in 2020. And I had the most horrible taste in my mouth afterwards. I’ve never done it since then,” he would say with suitable horror on his face. “But yeah, I don’t know. Something good to eat, that’s for sure,” he ended, now looking suitably bored.
If there was a Geet from Bhatinda in badminton for the unfettered monologues about a very interesting life, Antonsen would fit. In a world full of inscrutable, regimented champions both from his country and Asian powerhouses, Antonsen is always brimming with anecdotes of how life goes. Win or lose, through post-match interactions or podcasts, the Aarhus-born Dane has offered rare insights into the life of an elite shuttler, heading into an important year.
He has a World Tour Finals title from a depleted post-Covid year. A World Championship silver and two bronzes, pointing at consistency. The Malaysia title, his first Super 1000 of 2024, catapulted him into serious challenger territory for the Paris gold. For his personal coach Joachim Persson and Danish national coach Kenneth Jonassen though, the bar is set pretty high for the Olympics with Axelsen’s title from Tokyo. Yet, both would back him to help Denmark launch another serious aim at this summer’s Thomas Cup.
At Malaysia, Antonsen wasn’t averse to talking of his vulnerability in closing out against Shi Yuqi, the Chinese top name. Interestingly, Yuqi had a bout of outspokenness a couple of seasons ago, got packed off for a year by the coaches on disciplinary grounds and has returned, slightly mellowed and greatly discreet, as normalcy resumed in shuttle universe. Antonsen who won the year’s first biggie, was his usual elaborate, chatty self though. “Played a very good game from a difficult side, with the drift. Was fighting super, super hard to stay in there. Second game, the last 15 minutes was the longest 15 minutes of my life. Was so difficult to get the last few points. Suddenly he changed his style and played very good. And I kinda like panicked a little bit. So, wow, it was tough,” he would say.
On the circuit, Axelsen has looked patchy through 2023 missing out on the All England and World Championships. India’s HS Prannoy got right into his head even at Copenhagen Worlds. Yuqi is threatening to strike good form, even as Kunlavut Vitidsarn and Kodai Naraoka absorb the physical wear and tear of their attritional games. Ginting and Christie haven’t strung together title runs yet, Lee Zii Jia is up and down, Li Shifeng’s form will be clear at his All England defense and Prannoy is unlikely to reveal his cards too often. It leaves Antonsen carrying the form-banner, pulling on the favourites mantle, and withholding nothing early in the Olympic year.
Denmark’s Anders Antonsen return a shot to China’s Lei Lan Xi during the men’s singles match in the Indonesia Masters badminton tournament at the Istora Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia. (AP)
For all his freewheeling conversations, his game has its layers of difficult-to-predict contours. It’s not a particularly secret-riddled game, it’s a hard worker’s plough: he retrieves everything from the back, plays the lines adroitly, no impetuous errors, picks the low shuttles and is strong at the net.
Mentally, he can be pretty sturdy, and behind that goofball persona, is real grit. Against Kodai Naraoka who officially squeezes the last ounce of energy out of opponents, Antonsen averages 83 long minutes over 7 completed matches, with the Dane prevailing 4-3 in head to heads. Check their match times – 77, 110, 73, 70, 82, 81, 92 minutes. He was also one of the earliest to take down Kento Momota at his peak in Indonesia in 2018.
He isn’t thwarted by slow court conditions, his defense holds steady against big attackers, and Antonsen can amp up the pace. Against Lakshya Sen, he brimmed with patience. Call it being in the shadow of Axelsen or because he’s always huffing and puffing his way to big wins, not really looking invincible and his no-frills, no fireworks game, but no one would tag him a favourite for the Olympics. Works for the man to stay under the radar. He can look earnest, but not intimidating.
In the past, the Dane has spoken about his struggles of living independent of his family at Aarhus, and managing training alongside the groceries, cooking, cleaning in Copenhagen. The Danish insistence on young players figuring out their lives by themselves without help while straddling early careers saw him take his time to settle. “I moved into my apartment in Copenhagen as a 20-year-old. It was more work than I had expected. Laundry, grocery, own food. I had no idea. I had to fix things on my own. To pick stuff myself. As an adult, it was quite stressful. It was a lot of things. How not to get too stressed. When to take a step back. I have learnt a lot of things about myself in the past one year,” he had said.
It was also the time Antonsen suffered from debilitating bouts of migraine. “I got the migraine attacks for six to seven hours, throwing up and puking. If I got it on Monday, then I couldn’t practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’d start playing a little on Thursday. It just took me out many times when I had the chance to build my game and physique,” he had described. That was in 2018 at 20. At 26 now, Antonsen is sorted and focussed on sport. He’s grown boring and brilliant, more brill than a bore. He still blurts out about the wild times, but he’s stubbed out all cigar butts and the doubt-riddled ‘buts’ that held him back once. The Dane might just be readying for the prefix adjective of ‘great’ at Paris this year.
