Anders Antonsen on Sunday morning lost the final in the Korea Open to Indonesia's Jonatan Christie 10-21, 21-15, 17-21
Anders Antonsen failed to go all the way in the Korea Open. Early on Sunday, he lost the final of the Super 500 tournament in Seoul.
The Danish World No. 2 otherwise fought back well after a difficult start, but lost 10-21, 21-15, 17-21 to the Indonesian Jonathan Christie, who is No. 6 in the world rankings.
Antonsen reduced the deficit to 17-19 in the third set, but then made a mistake, and Christie could subsequently celebrate his first tournament triumph of the season.
The match started very evenly, but was then interrupted for a good five minutes at 5-5 as Antonsen was bleeding from his elbow and could not make it stop. He bandaged the elbow, but it clearly bothered him.
Antonsen made countless errors, and the Indonesian opened a five-point gap at 12-7. The Dane did not do much to chase a comeback in the set, but instead focused on winning the next two.
Antonsen also got off to a bad start in the second set, when Christie went up 4-0 and later made it 7-3, but then the match completely changed character.
Antonsen controlled the game, forcing Christie to make mistakes. Antonsen opened up a four-point gap at 12-8, which subsequently turned into 17-10, and Antonsen had no trouble closing out the set.
Antonsen also got off to a good start in the third set, where he took a 3-1 lead, but Christie again managed to turn the match on its head. The Indonesian took a 9-6 lead and led 11-9 at the change of sides.
The Dane leveled at 11-11, but only to lose the next three points. From there, the Indonesian maintained his lead.
Antonsen chased a comeback when he won three successive points to turn 14-19 into 17-19, but he then failed to take advantage of an opportunity to make it 18-19.
Christie then capitalized on his first match point on the following point.