JAPAN OPEN 2010 – Super Dan gets revenge

Peter Gade hoped for a sweet second time around.  But Super Dan had something different in mind.  In his better form, Lin Dan successfully avenged his Swiss Open loss to veteran opponent Peter Gade in a 45-minute match that ended in favour of the Chinese badminton star.

By Emzi Regala, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Yves Lacroix, Badmintonphoto (live)

Strategy-wise, both players appeared to know what had to be done to beat each other. The first game opened up with battle at the net: deception was the name of the game.  Each player exchanged cross-court hairpin shots, each waiting for the right moment to attack. The usually flamboyant Lin Dan was exceptionally focused, enabling him to make better judgments whenever the shuttle went out of the playing court as he managed to move Peter away from the net.   This successful strategy resulted in forced errors on the part of the Dane allowing Lin to walk away with a 21-11 first game victory.

Peter Gade appeared to have adjusted to his opponent’s speed and managed to get ahead 11-7 at the interval break of the second game.  However, Lin Dan impressively held it together, pounding at every opportunity, patiently waiting to execute his explosive cross-court jump smashes. He slowly sneaked in and finally caught up at 18 apiece.  3 minutes later, Lin Dan officially evened up this year’s tally against Peter Gade as the unusually tamed Chinese took the second set at 21-19.

“I’m 33 years old now and it’s a challenge to keep my best form especially since the tournament is close to the recently concluded World Championships.  But the Japan Open is one of my favourite tournaments and I try my best to keep my best form but today Lin Dan was very fast and very good at the net. It was hard to keep up with him,” said Gade, who was receiving a drawing from his very cute daughter while being interviewed at the mixed zone.

All Results HERE

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