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It was the Dane's 3rd title while it was a 2nd win for Korea's An at India's premier badminton event

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI: For many elite athletes across sports, a lot has changed since them peaking at the Paris Olympics. Not that much for Viktor Axelsen or An Se Young. Gold medallists at the French capital five months ago, they continue to stamp their authority in the game, clinching the top prize at the $950,000 India Open badminton tournament on Sunday.

While Danish third seed Axelsen showed his absolute dominance, thrashing Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-16, 21-8 to clinch his third men's singles crown at the Super 750 event, Korean world No. 1 An was sublime in dispatching Thai Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-12, 21-9 in the women's singles final at a packed KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here.

Axelsen against Lee was expected to be a close affair with the latter having beaten the two-time Olympic champion last week in the first round of the Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur. In addition, the Dane had struggled to close out his quarter-final and semi-final matches. But the final turned out to be lopsided.

Playing his sixth India Open final in 10 years, Axelsen, 31, didn't start well. He was trailing 2-6 before he started to find the range of his smashes. Lee, who had reached the final last year too, tried to keep attacking the backhand of the Dane but began making errors once the eventual champion started retrieving all his attacking strokes.

Once Axelsen pocketed the opening game, he ran away with the second, attacking the net as well as dominating the back court to the delight of the crowd which had turned out in huge numbers despite no Indian player in action on the final day.

"To be honest, it didn't feel like it was smooth sailing at all. I was struggling, especially at the start with Lee's game. But my legs started coming. I started moving better. From there I felt more and more confident," said the two-time world and Olympic champion.