China’s badminton superstar Lin Dan made it through to the quarter-finals of the world championships yesterday, with arch rival Lee Chong Wei also booking a place.
“Super Dan” made a shaky start against Malaysian Chong Wei Feng, who surged to a 7-2 lead in the first game of their third-round match.
Defending champion Lin, who had not been stretched in his first two matches, came under pressure from 15th seed Chong and was forced to dive around the court as his opponent found all the angles.
Photo: Reuters
Lin vented his frustration, talking to himself and hitting his head with his racket in the first game after he sent a shot wide.
“I didn’t have a good start today because we had only played two matches before and I wasn’t used to his style and tactics,” Lin told reporters after the match.
“For the first 11 points he had a lot of confidence and that created problems for me, but I found a way to adjust and got back into the match,” the Chinese player said.
The Olympic champion, who has been on the sidelines for the past year to spend time with his family and entered the tournament on a wild-card, eventually took the first game 22-20 after Chong saved two match points.
Lin pumped his fist as the crowd roared his name, and the hard-fought game saw line judges repeatedly called on to court to mop up perspiration.
A more relaxed Lin went on to dominate the second game, taking it 21-10 as the Malaysian lost his confidence and made more errors.
Fans are hoping for another classic showdown between 29-year-old Lin and world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who sealed a convincing 21-12, 21-7 win against 14th seed Wang Zhengming of China.
Lee put in a powerful performance against a tenacious opponent, in contrast to his nervy second-round struggle.
He unleashed smashes which Wang was unable to reach, placed precision shots and defended with lightning reflexes.
“This match was much better than the previous two — my pace was faster and there were fewer errors,” Lee told reporters.
Lee, 30, comes into the championships off wins in South Korea, Indonesia, India and Malaysia. He is hoping to break a run of losses against Lin, who beat him in the last two Olympic finals and the previous world championships final.
Lin will take on teammate Chen Long in the pick of the quarter-finals — Chen, 24, is the current All-England champion and world No. 2 — while Lee will meet Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto, ranked eighth.
Chen beat Malaysia’s Daren Liew 21-18, 21-15 in his third- round match while Sugiarto won 21-19, 21-14 against Marc Zweibler from Germany.
The women’s singles third round saw the shock exit of reigning world champion and second seed Wang Yihan of China, who was outpaced by Indian 18-year-old P.V. Sindhu, ranked 10th.
Sindhu took the match 21-18, 23-21 after some titanic rallies in the third game which left Wang looking exhausted.
Taiwanese No. 6 seed Tai Tzu-ying beat Linda Zetchiri of Bulgaria 21-13, 21-16, while Spain’s unseeded Carolina Marin had the crowd on their feet after a spectacular win over fifth seed Sung Ji-hyun from South Korea, taking the match 13-21, 21-13, 22-20.
No. 1 seeds South Korea’s Ko Hyun-sung and Lee Yong-dae also crashed out of the men’s doubles third round. They lost 21-14, 14-21, 19-21 to Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin of Taiwan, ranked 13th, in a frenetic match which raised the roof at the Tianhe gymnasium.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but