Zulfadli Zulkifli: Newly crowned World Champion determined to become top seed in Malaysia
Malaysia’s young and passionate shuttler Zulfadli Zulkifli, who has recently won the Men’s Singles title in the World Junior Championships, in Chinese Taipei last week, is determined to become the top seed in the elite squad of Malaysia.
Zulfadli is the only Malaysian shuttler who has won the title in the Junior World Champion as he defeated the defending Champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a three-set enthralling fight. The Malaysian also has the privilege of becoming the first player
in the country who won the title in the Badminton Asian Championships in India in April.
The Malaysian opened the first game in a wonderful way as he played with an aggressive approach. However, the Danish also matched the speed of his challenger and the score remained tight as no shuttler could manage a good position until the score reached
at the ending phase of the opening set.
At this crucial stage, the Malaysian changed his strategy and played wonderful strokes at the net. His perfect shots spared no room for Axelsen to survive and the Malaysian took the game with a decent 21-18 score on the board.
In the following set, the defending champion Axelsen played at his best speed and controlled the rallies. Zulfadli failed to maintain his killing form in this game and lost it without any considerable resistance by a margin of 9-21.
The final set of the match was interesting as the fight progressed towards the end without giving any advantage to both shuttlers. However, at the concluding phase, the Malaysian put everything he had in his arsenal and remained successful in scoring the
winning points. He took the deciding set with a 21-19 margin. The overall result of this title match was 21-18, 9-21 and 21-19.
“The joy was indescribable. The sense of achievement in finally winning the world title was sheer ecstasy,” a jubilant Zulfadli said in a telephone interview from Taipei.
He also said, “The senior game will be challenging but I will be ready for it. I am confident that I can take over from Chong Wei one day.
”I am currently ranked 207th in the world. I want to make it to the top 100 by end of next year.
Now the newly crowned Zulfadli is ready to enter into the arena of elite shuttlers with pride as having the back of the most prestigious titles in his credit in the junior circuit.
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