Christensen takes Lin Dan to the distance before losing

PETALING JAYA: Denmark’s Peter-Gade Christensen played one of his best matches ever in recent times but still came up short in the Singapore Open yesterday.

The old, but still energetic, Christensen showed great determination to push three-time world champion Lin Dan of China to the distance before going down 22-20, 17-21, 15-21 in a gruelling one hour and 15 minute men’s singles semi-final match.

It was Christensen second loss to Lin Dan within a month, having also lost to the Chinese in the Sudirman Cup last month.

Despite the narrow defeat, the 34-year-old Christensen showed that he is still a player to be reckoned with and could well be one of the title contenders at this year’s World Championships, which will be held in London from Aug 8-14.

The final today will be an all-China affair between Lin Dan and Chen Jin, who defeated world junior champion Wang Zhengming 21-17, 21-11 in the other semi-final.

There was joy in the Danish camp after all when Tine Baun stepped up confidently to pack off top seed Wang Shixian of China 21-15, 21-16 in just 35 minutes in the women’s singles semi-final.

The Dane will face another Chinese Wang Xin today.

Meanwhile, Indonesia are in the running for two titles today through Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan and Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir in the men’s and mixed doubles events respectively.

Alven-Hendra will face China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng while Tantowi-Lilyana will be up against Taiwan’s most improved pair of Chen Hung-ling-Cheng Wen-hsing in their respective finals today.

Semi-final results

Men’s singles: Lin Dan (Chn) bt Peter-Gade Christensen (Den) 20-22, 21-17, 21-15; Chen Jin (Chn) bt Wang Zhengming (Chn) 21-17, 21-11.

Men’s doubles: Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (Chn) bt Lee Yong-dae- Jung Jae-sung (Kor) 21-16, 23-21; Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan (Ina) bt Chai Biao-Guo Zhengdong (Chn) 21-19, 24-26, 21-14.

Women’s singles: Tine Baun (Den) bt Wang Shixian (Chn) 21-15, 21-16; Wang Xin (Chn) bt Yao Jie (Ned) 21-13, 21-11.

Women’s doubles: Ha Jung-eun-Kim Min-jung (Kor) bt Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa (Jpn) 21-16, 21-18; Tian Qing- Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito (Jpn) 23-21, 21-17.

Mixed doubles: Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir (Ina) bt Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) 23-21, 21-16; Chen Hungling- Cheng Wen-hsing (Tpe) bt Nathan Robertson-Jenny Wallwork (Eng) 21-12, 21-15.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 9:40 AM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0