Li-NING China Masters - Lin Dan makes a clean sweep for China

The victory also meant that China made a clean sweep of all five titles at stake as the men’s singles was the only event which featured a non-China player in the final.

The finals, however, was robbed of some glitter after two events were disrupted following injuries to Xie Zhongbo and Cai Yun respectively.

In the mixed doubles, the match between Xie Zhongbo-Zhang Yawen and Tao Jiaming-Wang Xiaoli was stopped after Xie could not continue and had to go to hospital for treatment. The score, at that stage, was 13-21, 21-19, 8-4 in favour of Tao-Wang.

Meanwhile in the men’s doubles, the final did not even take place after Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng conceded the match following an injury to Cai Yun. As a result, Guo Zhendong-Xu Chen were proclaimed the winners.

With four of the five finals featuring all China players or pairs, the focus was very much on the men’s singles final.

Ponsana, who crushed Denmark’s Peter Gade in the last eight and China’s silver medallist at the recent World Championships last month, Chen Jin, in the semi-finals, was expected to trouble Lin Dan.

But the reigning Olympic and world champion showed he is a player who is capable of living up to expectations when he demolished Ponsana 21-17, 21-17 to claim his fourth China Masters title.

In the women’s singles, Wang Shixian caused an upset when she beat favourite and No 2 seed Wang Lin in a three-game thriller.

Wang Shixian, 19, won 21-14, 14-21, 21-14 and proved that her earlier wins against the likes of Lu Lan and Wang Yihan was no fluke.

In the women’s doubles, Olympic champions Du Jing-Yu Yang also proved that they were capable of brushing off the challenge from their younger compatriots when they won in straight games, 21-15, 21-15.

Although Cheng Shu-Zhao Yunlei were seeded No 1, Du Jing-Yu Yang showed great understanding and experience to seal the match.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 9:01 AM. Filed under Lin Dan, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0