between world’s top two men’s singles shuttlers – Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Japan’s Kento Momota – in tomorrow’s final at the Axiata Arena.

World No 1 and 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion Axelsen is gunning to end a 15-year Asian domination of the tournament and clinch his third consecutive Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour title after having won the Indonesia Open and Masters.

Momota on the other hand, is still trying to regain his form following a road accident hours after he won the Malaysia Masters title by defeating Axelsen 24-22, 21-11 in January 2020.

Since the crash, Momota has only won the 2021 Indonesia Masters title.

His worst outing came when he was eliminated in the group stage of the Olympics in Tokyo last July.

In tonight’s semifinal, Momota took 42 minutes to beat Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-11, 21-12 to reach his second final.

He lost to home favourite Lee Chong Wei in 2018.

Momota is happy to make a BWF final again after having to overcome various obstacles.

“Honestly, I wasn’t confident for today’s match. I will give my best in the final for the fans, especially the local audience, who have been cheering hard for me all week,” he said through an interpreter.

Axelsen advanced to the final for the first time after defeating world No 8 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-15, 20-22, 21-11 after battling for one hour and 11 minutes.

“I really want to win very, very bad. But for now, I just want to focus on recovering and savour my semifinal win. I want to play against the best players in the world and Momota has such fantastic talent. I am so happy to see him back playing well and I wish him all the best and hope we have great match tomorrow,” he said.

Their head-to-head record clearly favours Momota, who has 14 wins in 16 meetings, while Axelsen won their last meeting at the Denmark Open last October.

The last non-Asian to win the men’s singles title was Danish shuttler Peter Gade in 2007, before former national ace Chong Wei won it nine times, including seven consecutive wins from 2008 to 2014.

Chinese stars Chen Long (2015) and Lin Dan (2017, 2019) also tasted victories.

Meanwhile in the women’s singles, 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei of China eliminated defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 19-21, 21-13, 21-15.

Tzu Ying has lifted the title four times, including three consecutive victories (2013, 2017, 2018, 2019) before the tournament was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yu Fei is set to face 2016 champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, who defeated Wang Zhi Yi of China 21-8, 21-18 in the other semifinal.

The mixed doubles final, meanwhile, will see a clash between reigning champions Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong of China and world No 2 Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.

2018 and 2019 champions Si Wei-Ya Qiong cruised into final after smashing out top Danish pair Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje 21-18, 21-8, while the Thai pair ousted another Chinese dup, Wang Yi Lyu-Huang Dong Ping, 23-21, 19-21, 21-14.

Si Wei was also the 2017 edition champion with his previous partner Chen Qing Chen.