Chen Jin can’t wait to take over Lin Dan’s top spot

CHINA’s Chen Jin is not planning to wait for his illustrious team-mate Lin Dan to retire before taking over as the country’s top player. He wants to do it soon.
“It is not challenging for me to become China’s No. 1 when Lin Dan is not there. It will be more meaningful to pull it off when he is still around,” he said.
“I still have a few good years ahead of me and I intend to achieve my dream to become China’s best soon.”
Chen Jin may just get his wish to come out from the shadows of three-time world champion in the world championships in Paris.
Yesterday, the 24-year-old took his time to beat Ville Lang of Finland 21-14, 21-14 in 35 minutes for a second-round match against Lithuanian’s Kestutis Navickas.
And after the win, he declared he was determined to reach the final again. At last year’s final in Hyderabad, he was beaten by Lin Dan in the final.
Chen Jin added that it was a grave mistake for him to think that he had an easier draw to reach the final.
He said that it would be tough even though the top guns, among them Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat and Park Sung-hwan, were not in his half of the draw.
“I am not lucky and those who think that I have an easy road to the final do not understand the game. No one can take a match for granted in a world event,” he said.
In the same quarter of the draw with Chen Jin are Indonesian Simon Santoso and Thai Boonsak Ponsana. Barring upsets, he is expected to take on Peter Gade-Christensen of Denmark in the semi-finals.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 10:19 AM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0