CHINA LEAGUE 2011 – No repeat of All England final

Lee Chong Wei (Guangzhou) © China Foto Press

Despite Lin Dan’s absence in the Guangzhou-Bayi match on Thursday, the notoriety among Chinese badminton fans of Malaysian shuttler Lee Chong Wei, who was in the line-up for team Guangzhou, was  proven by a league record half-capacity stadium.

By Ee Lyn Ooi, Badzine correspondent. Photos: China Foto Press

The first cycle of the Chinese League’s round-robins came to an end on Thursday, with Qingdao and Hunan standing first and second respectively. But it was Bayi and Guangzhou, the two teams to serve the first shuttles of the second round-robin cycle, who were hoped to provide the biggest spectacle.

The match took place in Tianhe Sports Center, home court of the former club. Lee Chong Wei, who signed a contract to play two matches for Guangzhou Yueyu Club, was included in the team’s lineup of the day, where he would show up for his second and last time in the league. Chinese Badminton fans had been looking forward to the excitement of a Lee-Lin match, ever since the the Malaysian announced he had signed up for the local team. However, Super Dan was not part of Bayi’s lineup of the day.

Lu Lan (Guangzhou) © China Foto Press

It was reported that the tickets for the day were sold at a higher price than usual as it is a weekend, but the increase in ticketing price had clearly not affected the day’s business. The stadium, large enough to hold 8,000 people, was half-full with approximately 4,000 spectators seated inside, making it the highest number of spectators in the league so far.

The day began with Cheng Shu / Du Jing and Feng Chen / Li Xuerui playing their part in the women’s doubles match. However, Lee Chong Wei, who was seen laughing and talking to teammate Lu Lan while warming up on the adjacent court, caught the attention of the crowd. Fans couldn’t help but calling out his name every time Lee turned back to pick the shuttle.

Teams had exchanged their name lists a day earlier and Guangzhou had then been informed that Lin Dan would not be showing up due to some other affairs. Despite this, Lee, also a top player indicated that he completely understands Lin Dan’s situation.

“I wouldn’t say it was disappointing that he couldn’t show up today because he had some commercial shooting to do. There are still the Super Series and Olympic qualification tournaments that will be beginning in May and that’s what’s more important to us, so his absence today really isn’t very disappointing,” said Lee to sports.qq after defeating Bayi’s youngster Luo Cheng.

According to rules, once a team has already won the first three matches, each game in the following matches will be only be played to 11 points instead of 21. With Guangzhou nailing the victory at 3-0, the women’s singles and mixed doubles were both played to 11 per game and Lu Lan and Chen Zhifen / Zhong Qianxin defeated , respectively, Jiang Yanjiao and He Hanbin / Feng Chen of Bayi, ending the match 5-0 in Guangzhou’s favour.

Complete results of March 19th:
Guangzhou 5 – 0 Bayi
Shanghai 1 – 4 Qingdao
Hunan 4 – 1 Wuhan
Jiangsu 2 – 3 Zhejiang

The next matches involving the China Badminton League’s eight clubs will be played on March 26^th.

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