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Olympic Champ Lin Back With A Bang
After three months of post-Olympic recuperation Lin Dan strutted back on to the world stage as the true champion he is.
| Lin once again made mince meat of the man who replaced him as world number one, Malaysian Lee Chong Wei, winning 21-18, 21-9 in the men's singles final of the China Open Super Series event over the weekend.
It was just as convincing as Lin's Olympic final victory over Lee in August, after which Lee assumed the world number one position but has yet to win a tournament as the top-ranked player. Lin had meanwhile laid low after his gold medal-winning run in Beijing, preferring to celebrate and take some time away from the circuit. And it appears his three months away had no impact on his ability as he stormed through the field, dropping only one game in the process. Three of his four opponents before the final were from China. In the first round, the second-seeded Lin waltzed past Macau's Cheang Wai-lok 21-2, 21-11. He then defeated countryman Gong Weijie 21-13, 21-13 before a 21-13, 21-16 quarter-final victory over Du Pengyu. Lin's most difficult match of the tournament came in the semi-final against Chinese qualifier Wen Kai, who took him to three games before prevailing 21-17, 18-21, 21-17. For Lee, it was yet another failed tournament as number one, though, to be fair, he has reached the finals in most of the event he has played in. However, he is still searching for that elusive victory while ranked number one, a position he has held twice before in his career. Top-seeded Lee had a difficult time in reaching the final. In the opening round he was stretched to three games before beating unseeded Chinese Qiu Yanbo 8-21, 21-14, 21-16. That put him up against Hong Kong's Ng Wei, who fell meekly to Lee 21-13, 21-14. A much more difficult task awaited him in the quarter-finals in the form of fellow Malaysian Wong Choong Hann. Wong won the second game as Lee emerged 21-19, 19-21, 21-10. He had another three-game match in the semi-finals, where he defeated South Korea's eighth seed and Asian champion Park Sung-hwan 17-21, 21-8, 21-7. |
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