Lin Dan has won it all. The five-time world champion is firmly out of his ‘semi-retirement’ to win a third successive Olympic gold next year in Rio.
But, unlike the days of supremacy — when speed was his forte — it now looks like he can be defeated by some of today’s leading players. This week world No. 2 Jan O Jorgensen talked about the Chinese looking a bit vulnerable, having beaten him in the Japan Open last June.
In the past 10 months, Lin Dan won the Australian Open and Chinese Taipei Open but suffered defeats to K. Srikanth (China Open) and world champion Chen Long (All England).
But on Friday, world No. 10 Tommy Sugiarto joined the list of those select players who have a rare win against Lin Dan.
Playing before a crowd that made no secret of its support to Lin Dan, Sugiarto battled to a 21-17, 15-21, 21-18 victory in 78 minutes to gate-crash into the semifinals of the $275,000 India Open badminton championship here.
The Indonesian, a bronze-medallist in the last world championship, had not won a game in three previous encounters to the Chinese favourite.
But on this day, when Lin Dan committed uncharacteristic mistakes in the decider, Sugiarto seized his chances and sank to his knees as Lin Dan erred at the net on match-point.
Coached since January this year by his father Icuk Sugiarto (former world champion and a two-time winner of the World Cup), the 26-year-old Indonesian said, “I think, he lost concentration (towards the closing stages).”
Though Lin Dan rallied from 11-15 to lead 16-15, an undeterred Indonesian won six of the last seven points to complete his most memorable triumph.
Mixed day for India
For the host, it was a mixed day. Saina Nehwal and K. Srikanth took contrasting routes to the semifinals but H.S. Prannoy and qualifier R.M.V. Gurusaidutt faltered after winning the first game in their respective quarterfinal clashes against higher ranked players.
Saina entered her maiden semifinals of the event after expectedly beating unseeded Indonesian Hana Ramadhini 21-15, 21-17. A victory over unseeded Japanese Yui Hashimoto on Saturday will assure Saina the world No. 1 ranking next Thursday.
Srikanth, looking to complete a hat-trick of wins over Takema Ueda in four meetings, took the first game 21-15 but blew away his chances in the second.
He saved two game points but squandered three matchpoints as Ueda won 25-23 and forced the decider.
An increasingly nervous-looking Srikanth never trailed but looked unsure of his abilities as he allowed Ueda to make it 18-19.
He scraped through when Ueda netted a return.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men : 6-Victor Axelsen (Den) bt H.S. Prannoy (Ind) 16-21, 21-9, 21-18; 8-Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) bt 3-Lin Dan (Chn) 21-17, 15-21, 21-17; Xue Song bt R.M.V. Gurusaidutt (Ind) 15-21, 21-18, 21-13; 2-K. Srikanth bt Takema Ueda (Jpn) 21-15, 23-25, 21-18.
Women : 1-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt Hana Ramadhini (Ina) 21-15, 21-12; Yui Hashimoto (Jpn) bt 7-Yip Pui Yin (Hkg) 20-22, 21-15, 21-17; 3-Rachanok Intanon (Tha) bt Yao Xue (Chn) 21-14, 21-8; 2-Carolina Marin (Esp) bt Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) 21-15, 17-21, 21-15.
