Lin outlasts teammate Chen to reach semifinals
Print Edition
China’s Lin Dan booked a place in the semifinals of the badminton world championships yesterday after a 21-13, 22-20 victory over Chen Long, his teammate and the tournament’s second seed.
The players were given a rapturous reception at the Tianhe gymnasium in Guangzhou, Guangdong Provnce, with the home crowd cheering loudly for both as they came on court.
In women’s singles, top-seeded Li Xuerui gave the home crowd more to cheer about as she downed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei 27-25, 21-13, while Bae Yeon-Ju of South Korea beat Indonesian Saina Nehwal 23-21, 21-9.
In Lin’s match, the defending champion and his 24-year-old rival Chen traded points at the start with each drawing on an armory of high lifts, smashes and subtle drop shots.
But the game started to go Lin’s way after he leapt high in the air to drive home a smash to go up 13-10.
On the next point Chen’s return sat on the net and refused to drop, gifting Lin — widely recognized as the best player of all time — a four-point lead.
A rampant Lin, 30, went on to take the first game 21-13 before slipping behind at the start of the second, but reigning All-England champion Chen failed to capitalize.
An enthralling encounter went down to the wire with a run of deuce scores until Chen sent his final shot into the net as Lin took the game 22-20, the younger player throwing down his racket in frustration.
“I’m not too disappointed with my performance, but I could have had a better end of the second game,” Chen said after the match.
“There were several points I really had to win but I didn’t. Maybe I have to be more aggressive.”
Lin paid tribute to his teammate, saying he was the star of the future.
“We both had excellent performances — even if one doesn’t win, it doesn’t mean he didn’t perform well,” he said.
“Chen Long is very young, he will only be 28 in Rio (the 2016 Olympics), which is a great age for a badminton player.”
Top-seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia scored an easy 21-6, 21-9 victory over eighth-seeded Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto to set up a semifinal clash with third-seeded Du Pengyu of China.
Du defeated Kashyap Parupalli of Indonesia 16-21, 22-20, 21-15.
Lin will next meet seventh-seeded Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, who became the first-ever player from his country to ensure a medal at the world championships by reaching the last four.
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