ASIAN GAMES MS SF – Super Dan still reigns

Lin Dan repeated at the Incheon Asian Games today his denial of Lee Chong Wei of 4 years ago, booking his second straight appearance in the gold medal match.

Story and photos by Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Incheon

One might think that a great player like Lee Chong Wei needs his own nickname to compete with a moniker like Super Dan but no doubt, the Malaysian would simply be happy with one of the major titles that the Chinese superstar has won at the expense of the world #1.

In fact, if we are talking about the majority of high-level badminton events, these belong to Lee Chong Wei (pictured right), who is the undisputed king of the Badminton World Federation’s Super-series.  It is just those pesky other events that continue to elude the legendary Penang native.

Today in Incheon, to his two Olympic finals, two World Championship finals and to the 2010 Guangzhou gold medal match, Lin Dan (pictured top) added an Asian Games semi-final victory over Lee Chong Wei.

Lee Chong Wei started strong in both the first and second game, getting the first game point at 20-16 before Lin Dan reeled him in and passed him to take the opener 22-20.  In the second, Lee held his grip on the lead and forced the decider.

And what a decisive decider it was!  Lin Dan roared to a 21-9 victory and booked his spot in the final.  This is right where he was 4 years ago, but at that time, the Asian Games was one of the two biggest titles he had yet to win, the other being the Superseries Finals, which Lin won just over a year later.

“It was impossible for me to follow him in the third game,” said Lee Chong Wei after their semi-final.  “I didn’t think about the outcome of the match but just tried to take it point by point.  I did my best but couldn’t beat him today.”

In the final, Lin Dan takes on his successor as World Champion, Chen Long.  Chen wasted no time in trouncing Wei Nan of Hong Kong.

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