But there was solace for Japan as their world champion and top seed Akane Yamaguchi came from behind to win the women's singles title with a scoreline of 12-21, 21-19, 21-11 against South Korea's second seed An Se Young in Kuala Lumpur's Axiata Arena.

Axelsen, 29, took just 40 minutes to put together a 21-6, 21-15 victory that earned him $87,500 (RM380,000/£71,500/€80,600), with his opponent receiving $42,500 (RM184,000/£34,750/€39,100).

Axelsen, who defeated Japan's former world champion Kento Momota in last year's final, told nst.com: "I could see that Naraoka was stiff legged, he's tired after playing so many good matches this week.

"I went in and played a high-paced game, he had to work really hard.

"He's had a fantastic week and is a young player, we will see much of him."

Naraoka admitted he was tired from playing in long matches all week and found it hard to contain Axelsen's power on court.

Last month, the Japanese world number seven managed to stretch Axelsen - who has now won eight out of 12 events contested this season - to three games at the World Tour Finals in Bangkok.

"Last month it was very different," Naraoka said.

"This week I played many long matches and was really tired.

"Axelsen's smashes were really powerful and I wasn't able to cope."

This was Axelsen's ninth Super Series Premier title and third Malaysia Open title.

Meanwhile, Chinese domination in doubles continued.

Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, the world nunber one pairing in women's doubles, beat South Korea's Baek Hana-Lee Yulim 21-16, 21-10 in 52 minutes and mixed doubles top seeds Zheng Si Wei and Huang ya Qiong earned a 21-19, 21-11 win over Japan's Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino.

But China missed a clean sweep as their men's doubles pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang were beaten 21-18, 18-21, 21-13 by Indonesia's third seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Riad Ardianto.