BWF WORLD SUPER SERIES - YONEX FRENCH OPEN: Lin Dan gets his first title in Paris
News 2:03 PM
Can anyone beat Lin Dan when he is in such terrific form? Hard to say, but it would take probably more than just one shuttler to bring down the mighty Chinese. Once again, on Sunday, he was just extraordinary and playing at a different level from the rest of the pack.
Not even Taufik Hidayat in a fairly good form this week, was able to make the Olympic champion stumble. Taufik played quite well, but just not good enough. Lin Dan was all over the court. Fast, precise, making this sport look like an easy one to play, jump smashing as it was nothing, using his amazing footwork to anticipate Taufik’s attacks with clever defenses.
Even at the net – Taufik’s favourite field of play – the Chinese was better. Lin seemed unbeatable. The first game was just a lesson of badminton – which lasted… 12 minutes ! Lin led from start to finish, 6/0, then, 17/6, before Taufik realised it would take too much energy to try to come back in the game and let go 6/21.
The crowd couldn’t believe what they were seeing – a one sided battle between probably the most talented players ever. The Indonesian showed glimpses of his genius at time, but it took just too much energy to score points while Lin Dan was scoring one point after the other. Past the half way mark, it looked like the Olympic Champion had taken the psychological edge and ended up winning 21/6 – 21/15.
Lin Dan was the third Gold medal of the day, after Wang Yihan and Wang Xiaoli/Ma Jin had beaten their compatriots on TV court earlier in the afternoon. Yihan was facing Wang Lin, who had been shining on home ground to clinch the National Games title, and the tall shuttler from
Winning the first game 21/9, Wang Yihan was on top of the net and placing some beautiful attacks down the line. Wang Lin, obviously tired, could not match her opponent’s speed, but something could have turned the tables : Wang Yihan twisted her ankle in the middle of the second game. As there was neither coach nor Chinese doctors, the 21 year old shuttler simply sat on the side court and placed her bandage over her right ankle.
Few minutes later, she was back on court with the clear idea in mind to go one step further than last week in
“It was not an easy match at all as I was in pain most of the time. I had to force the pain out and I was hoping she wouldn’t come back, but it feels really nice to have won here and I am grateful to the French public for the great atmosphere,” she said.
Wang Xiaoli and Ma Jin played above par to beat their compatriots Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei. The former were obviously hoping for a quick win. In 32 minutes it was a done deal for Wang and Ma, winner 21/13 – 21/8.
What lasted even less longer was the mixed doubles final : 21 minutes for a one sided story between Indonesians Widianto and Natsir and their friends and compatriots Vita Marissa and Hendra Gunawan for a 21/7 – 21/7 success, for a match that isn’t worth mentioning with too many mistakes from Marissa and Gunawan.
Fortunately for the full stadium, the last match of the day saw some very exciting badminton between
The Malaysians took the first game 21/15, playing the perfect attacking game, with the ideal combination of Koo at the back, hitting hard while Koo was enjoying to show off his creativity with his racket.
But things didn’t go as smoothly in the two other games. The Indonesians, Kido and Setiawan, soon realised that the key was the net, which they started controlling to make their opponent lift the shuttles and being able to kill.
Many, many shuttles hit the net band but overall, the precision was more on the Indonesian’s side and they took the second game 21/15 as well. The third game was a fierce battle between the four players with – from far – the best match of the day finally getting the crowd to smile after some rather disappointing turn out in earlier matches.
At the end of the day, however, Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan saw off their opponents and took the last game 21/13.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 2:03 PM.
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