SS FINALS 2010 Day 4 – Jung/Lee ready to defend

Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae of Korea have followed suit with Lee Chong Wei, also reaching their third straight final in the Victor BWF Super Series Finals.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Taipei.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Jung and Lee are starting 2011 just as they did 2010.  They played a semi-final against Chinese youngsters Chai Biao / Zhang Nan and they succeeded in beating them in two, again avenging the loss of their compatriots Ko/Yoo, all just like in their first tournament of last January, the Korea Open.  But while last year they played Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng, when the Chinese were hot off a big win over Denmark’s Boe/Mogensen, this time it will be the Danes who will try to unseat the defending champions.

A lot has changed this time.  Lee Yong Dae claims to have fully recovered from the elbow injury that had him all taped up at last year’s Korea Open and that kept him sidelined from the Thomas Cup and indeed from several months of tournaments.  Also, it is opponent Zhang Nan who is the one doing double duty these days, a part of world top 8 pairs in both mixed and men’s doubles.  Lee Yong Dae was looking fresh and powerful in the semi-final, able to power down smashes with almost as much zip as his backcourt bombardier of a partner.  All this translated into a quick, straight-game victory for the Koreans.

“The discussion of whether to have me playing both or to focus just on mixed doubles is over,” Lee Yong Dae explained.  “We’ve found that my condition is so much more solid now than when I was playing both.

“At that time, after playing two hard matches in a day, I was really hurting the next day and it was so hard to see a tournament through for the round of 32 all the way to a final, playing both disciplines so this is working out much better.”

On their outlook for the final, Jung Jae Sung said “This pair is very spirited and since it is a pair with a lefthander and a righthander, finding empty spots to aim for on the court is going to be difficult.

“Yong Dae and I are going to have to play with a lot of trust and we both have to take responsibility to keep control at the net. They are famous for being able to keep their opponents off their guard so we are going to have to be ready.

“Yesterday both we and the Danes knew we were through to the semi-finals and so we played without pressure.  I got the feeling they were playing at about only 60%.  Neither of us wanted to expend too much energy before the semis.  Tomorrow, it’s going to be all-out right from the get-go so it will be a totally different match.”

“In a way, I think it is lucky for us that the Danish pair weren’t more determined to win yesterday,” added Lee Yong Dae, “because it’s a lot harder to beat them than their team-mates, whom we faced today.”

It is definitely the Koreans who have been beset with fan attention in terms of cheers, requests for photos, and autographs etc. but as for who fortune will favour in the final, we’ll have to wait and see.

For complete results from Day 4 of the BWF Super Series Finals, CLICK HERE

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