China’s badminton superstar Lin Dan booked a place in the semi-finals of the world championships yesterday after overcoming teammate and second seed Chen Long.
The players were given a rapturous reception at the Tianhe gymnasium in Guangzhou, with the home crowd cheering loudly for both as they came on court.
The first game saw defending champion “Super Dan” and his 24-year-old rival trade point for point, drawing on an armory of high lifts, smashes and subtle drop shots. However, 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.
Photo: AFP
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 that he was a 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 [for the 2016 Olympics], which is a great age for a badminton player,” he said.
Lin’s clash with Chen, who is widely tipped as successor to his crown as China’s top player, was his toughest of the competition so far.
Lin, the four-time world champion and one of China’s biggest sports stars, has been on the sidelines for most of the past year to spend time with his family. His form was a mystery until the start of the tournament.
Meanwhile, No. 3 seed Du Pengyu of China beat India’s Kashyap Parupalli, the 13th seed, 16-21, 22-20, 21-15 to earn his semi-final place.
In the women’s singles top seed Li Xuerui proved too good for sixth seeded Taiwanese Tai Tzu-ying, winning their quarter-final 27-25, 21-13.
South Korea’s Bae Yeon-ju sprung a surprise, the No. 13 seed defeating third seeded Saina Nehwal of India 23-21, 21-9.
There was more disappointment for Taiwanese player in the men’s doubles with Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia beating Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin of Taiwan 21-14, 21-18.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS