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Chen Stuns Lin in Hong Kong Open Final
China's Chen Jin put an end to Olympic champion Lin Dan's winning comeback run when he defeated his compatriot in the final of the Hong Kong Open Super Series men's singles final.
| Third seed Chen, who has failed to make an impact since winning the All England men's singles title early this year, said he was not surprised to beat the Beijing champion because of his past victories over him.
His 21-9, 9-21, 21-17 victory means there was no gold for China's golden couple of Lin and Xie Xing Fang. Xie, Lin's girlfriend, was beaten in the women's singles final. Despite his victory in front of a full Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Chen believes he has some way to go before he can beat Lin and world number one Lee Chong Wei, of Malaysia, on a regular basis. Top seed Lee pulled out of the Hong Kong event because of injury. Chen enjoyed a smooth run to the final. In the opening round he beat Taiwanese qualifier Liao Sheng-shiu 21-10, 21-15 and then made short work of Indian hope Chetan Anand 21-11, 21-12. He then had a potentially tricky quarter-final against Chinese qualifier Gong Weijie, who had beaten Denmark's fifth seed Pete Gade in the previous round in three games. However, Chen upped his game and sailed through to the last four with a 21-8, 21-10 victory. Chen scored another straight-game victory in the semi-final, disposing of Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana 21-15, 21-16. Earlier, Boonsak had a three-game win over India's Arvind Bhat, who took out sixth-seeded Dane Joachim Persson in the first round. Lin had a slightly tougher time getting through his matches, starting with straight-game victories over Scotland's Alistair Casey and Indonesia's Andre Kurniawan Tedjono in the first two rounds. His first major test came in the quarter-finals against Asian champion Park Sung-hwan, of South Korea. After three tough games, Lin eventually won 21-16, 14-21, 21-13 to claim his place in the last four. His semi-final opponent was 2004 Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, of Indonesia, the seventh seed. What was supposed to be a tough match proved one-sided as Lin came out a 21-17, 21-14 winner. |
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