As if one game of 3 sets would tire out their bodies. They train each day like 100x harder. A complete rest day would kill their bodies and make them unable to play. Lee Yong Dae famously played like 2 hours of doubles before going out to play his real matches. How they got to the final thus does not matter. Whoever wins, wins. And even if Momota is not yet in perfect shape and manages to lose (meaning match fit), he is still a lot stronger than Axelsen imho.
That's where you're wrong. If you know anything about competing, playing to win is a huge strain on their bodies, and especially at high levels. It's not just physically, but also mentally. Playing one set will be a small toll on their bodies, and it'll slowly accumulate over the course of the week.
While I've never competed in higher level tournaments for badminton, I'll use swimming instead as I swim at a higher level than I play badminton.
The amount of training is a lot. In season, we'll swim hard of anywhere between 3000-7000 meters a session (generally two hours), twice a day, six times a week. In the case we don't swim twice but only once, we have weightlifting instead. Naturally, the volume swam will lessen as we near championship meets.
For me personally, the events I swim in only consist of 100 and 200 meters. Let's say I have four events total, two 100 meters and two 200 meters. For simplicity's sake, each event will be on consecutive days, with a prelims session in the morning and a finals session in the evening. With this lineup, my total volume is only 1200 meters not including the ~2000-3000 meter warmup/cool down I'd do. As such, the amount I swim competing is significantly less than the amount I train over the course of four days. By your logic, I should not be fatigued when competing over the course of the week.
The thing is, when you compete, you push your self to the absolute max that your body can handle, that you can mentally push yourself to. I didn't swim much, but it's gonna feel incredibly tiring after and I feel exhausted. I'll feel better the next day, but I'm no longer at the 100 percent I started off on before my first race. Reason why is the accumulation of lactic acid that builds up despite my efforts of recovery.
Competing and training are not exactly the same in this aspect. With training you can help improve your recovery when competing, but there's still a bit of fatigue that remains which can only be cured by taking a day off. This is why we have rest days.
I can only assume the same is for badminton (as well as many other sports). Some have better recovery than others, but I can assure you that playing at the highest level, there is definitely an accumulation of fatigue.
Pardon this rant of mine, seeing someone say that competing shouldn't affect their fatigue compared to training got me off on the wrong note.
Now I believe that if VA can beat Momota in an absolutely convincing manner, despite having played tougher sets, it would mean that he is currently the stronger one of the two. If it was 2019 Momota vs 2022 VA, I would have absolute confidence that Momota would come out on top. At the moment, I have to give the edge to VA.
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