WORLDS 2010 – No DANger for Park Sung Hwan

The reigning world champion, Lin Dan, was far from his usual menacing self as he was outplayed by his Korean nemesis, Park Sung Hwan, in straight games leaving the men’s singles title at the 2010 Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships to a new face.

By Tarek Hafi and Jan Lin (live in Paris). Photo: Badmintonphoto (live)

The Chinese, though currently ranked third in the world, is still recognized as the best player in the world, having achieved more than anyone else in badminton history.  Still, the Chinese has been forced to abdicate his world throne at the quarter-final stage of the 2010 World Championships.  This defeat is to be Lin Dan’s worst result since 2005, where he lost in the final against Taufik Hidayat, before going on to win the next three editions, in Madrid, Kuala Lumpur and Hyderabad.

The lanky Park Sung Hwan didn’t have much trouble beating Lin Dan, who was, by comparison, erratic and allowed Park to have a comfortable cushion between them throughout the match. Besides, Park dominated the court, retrieving every shot with incredible finesse and releasing precise smashes at various angles to bag his fourth victory over the Chinese.

“I’ve prepared sufficiently for the World Championships, so I’m not entirely surprised by the win,” said Park, whose most memorable win was in 2004 when he stopped Lin Dan’s unbeaten run that had christened him ‘Super Dan’. “I believe 80% of the points were won by my ability and 20% were by Lin Dan’s mistakes. When I head back to Korea, I will work with my coach Li Mao to bring that to 100%.“

Li Mao may not have traveled to Paris with his charge but that did not stop Park from giving due credit to his coach’s guidance and to support from his fiancée. Park revealed: “Coach Li Mao is not just a technical coach.  He gives me a lot of mental and physical training as well. All the pep-talks he gives me before the competition are really helpful in getting me ready.  My fiancée has been a great help just by talking to me as well.“

“I’m very happy with the result as I feel I’ve taken myself to the next level with this result. Every player should go into a game with the goal of winning, whether playing Lin Dan or not. Though before the competition, I wasn’t really think about playing Lin Dan in the quarter-final as we have come into the Championships more concerned about beating the Vietnamese player [Nguyen Tien Minh],” he added.

“Against Taufik though, he is one of the better players in the world,” Park continued, sharing his thoughts on his upcoming semi-final match against 2004 Olympic Champion Taufik Hidayat, “so there’s no such thing as ‘strategy against Taufik’ but I do see it as a learning experience, learning better badminton from him, and perhaps in this process, I’ll pick up some of his mistakes and win it.“

When asked whether winning the Asian Games in November would be more meaningful than this massive scalp at the World Championships, Park asserted: “Asian Games or World Championships, to me, these are all but rehearsals to what is the most important to me – the Olympic Games.  So meanwhile, there is no pressure on me to beat Taufik since I’ve never beaten him before anyway.“

While for the reigning Olympic Champion, Lin Dan, he pointed to his inability to remained patient and focused as his stumbling blocks in this match. Lin said: “I just couldn’t regain my composure today and I have no idea why I had difficulties in getting a grip on myself today. Especially when Park was so patient and he capitalized on my impatience, so point-by-point, I lost the match.  It’s rather bizarre.“

“Park has always been an outstanding player.  I will have to keep competing to stay in the fray,” said the 27-year-old after the game. “I wasn’t thinking about the fourth consecutive title before the competition.  I just wanted to take it a game at a time but today was just poor.  During the match, there were things that caught me off-guard but mainly it was my lack of composure that cost me.“

Speaking like a true champion in the hearts of many badminton fans, Lin concluded: “I won’t count this loss as a setback. Winning or losing is all part of a competition – I wanted to win but I just didn’t play as well as my potential allows of me today to win it – and that’s how it is in competitive sports. When you are not at your best, you’re allowing your opponents to gain momentum and get the win.“

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