Viktor Axelsen
Susi Susanti
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Viktor Axelsen at #4 and Susi Susanti at #5.
The case for Viktor Axelsen
The dominant men's singles player of the 2020s and Europe's finest since the amateur era, Viktor Axelsen became the first non-Asian man in decades to rule the sport outright. The 1.94-metre Dane won Olympic gold in Tokyo 2020 and defended it in Paris 2024, and holds two World titles (2017, 2022) plus All England crowns in 2020 and 2022. Blending a colossal reach, a steep jump smash and hard-won patience, he strung together a spell of near-total dominance around 2021 and 2022, losing only a handful of matches across the seasons. Fluent in Mandarin and famously professional, he relocated to train at altitude in Dubai to extend his career. His rivalries — with Kento Momota, and later a rising field of Asian challengers — have defined the post-Lin Dan landscape and proved that the sport's summit is no longer an Asian monopoly.
The case for Susi Susanti
Susi Susanti delivered Indonesia's first-ever Olympic gold medal of any kind at Barcelona 1992, winning the inaugural women's singles title on the same day her future husband Alan Budikusuma took the men's crown — a national fairy tale watched by a spellbound country. She added the 1993 World Championship and four All England titles (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994), and won the World Cup a record five times. Playing with metronomic consistency, tireless defence and an unbreakable competitive calm, she was the finest women's player of the early 1990s and the pioneer who proved the women's game could carry a nation's hopes. Her Barcelona gold remains one of the sport's most emotionally resonant moments and the foundation of Indonesia's badminton identity, and she is universally regarded as one of the greatest women ever to play the game.