China’s Lin Dan and Peter Gade of Denmark set up a repeat of their Olympic clash when they stormed into the men’s singles quarter-finals at the world badminton championships yesterday.
Lin, aiming to become the first shuttler to bag three successive world titles, proved too strong for Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands as he raced to a 21-11, 21-11 victory in 31 minutes.
Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat also made it to the last eight. The No. 4 seed and 2004 Olympic champion had a 21-15, 21-19 win over Taiwan’s Hsieh Yu-hsing.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Third-seeded Gade beat 10th-seeded Chan Yan Kit of Hong Kong 21-11, 21-12 in another pre-quarter-final encounter.
“The pressure will be on him because I think he won’t like to lose to an old guy,” said the 32-year-old Gade, who was beaten by Lin in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“I have beaten him at home a few years ago, so I think I can beat him here also. I am going to give everything I have got. I am going to fight for each point. I can play freely because he is the favorite,” Gade said. “I am so far happy with my performance. This is what I wanted to do before the quarter-finals. Chan played some wonderful shots, but I kept pressure on him. It will be a different match tomorrow.”
Lin said he had not expected such an easy win against Palyama, who had upset 11th-seeded China’s Bao Chunlai in the opening round.
“I have met him before, but it was never as easy as today. I watched his game [against Bao] and knew what to expect,” said Lin, who won the World title in 2006 and 2007. “But the match against Gade will be different as he played well in the Olympics also.”
World No. 1 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong moved into the women’s singles quarter-finals with a 21-11, 21-18 win over Japan’s Ai Goto.
Fifth-seeded Chinese Xie Xingfang overcame stiff resistance from Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana to make it to the last-eight with a 21-16, 14-21, 21-9 victory.
The other women’s singles quarter-finalist was seventh-seeded Chinese Lu Lan, who posted a 21-18, 21-14 victory over ninth-seeded Wang Chen of Hong Kong.
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