2012 BWF Superseries Finals: An unfortunate ending of season for Chong Wei
Malaysia’s badminton king Lee Chong Wei started 2012 BWF Superseries Finals as top seeded player and all the critics were declaring him the potential champion. He also was in high spirit to end this season with a splendid win but an ill-timed injury put
his expedition to halt.
World Number one shuttler lost his opening match to a lower ranked Chinese campaigner Du Pengyu and then conceded walkover against Boonsak Ponsana and Hu Yun in group stage. These setbacks ultimately forced him to book a ticket to home.
The two-time Olympic silver medallist Chong Wei was in prime touch after raising country’s flag in back-to-back international tournaments like Japan Open, Denmark Open and Hong Kong Open but he fell prey to a thigh injury in season’s last esteemed badminton
event.
Earlier, there were reports that the Malaysian ace has been facing problems during training sessions for the Super Series Finals but team officials talked down all the rumours. However, signs of trouble came straight away in the opening encounter as Chong
Wei remained busy on court for three gruelling sets against an unseeded player Du Pengyu of China.
Though, he managed to rule the court in first set and bagged the opening match point but he lost control in the following segments and crashed out. He kick-started his campaign in perfect manner and kept Du Pengyu busy just in returning his masterly crafted
strokes.
Chong Wei maintained a notable difference on points table and kept his challenger at the lower end throughout this set. He established a strong grip with an indomitable total of 11 and then served notice of his supremacy with an impressive knock of 21-12.
His over-exertion in the opening game aggravated his injury and he could not move swiftly across the court. This passive approach hit him hard in the second set and he lost this crucial game with a five-point deficit in 16-21 total.
However, Chong Wei did not knelt down tamely as he acted like wounded tiger in the decider and challenged his rival until last shot was played. He enjoyed an upper hand in most part of the game but then things became worse for him in the final stage.
Du Pengyu made best out of his opponent’s pitiable fitness and locked the honour with 22-20 score on the board.
With this defeat, Chong Wei decided to pull out his name from this prestigious badminton tournament and did not appear in next showdowns. Now he will make every effort to restore his fitness before the home event Malaysia Open Super Series which is going
to begin in January, 2013.
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