BWF Super Series Finals: Chen Long beats Lee Chong Wei in semi-final showdown to establish his worth
China’s in-form young player, Chen Long, overpowers the top seed and defending champion, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, in the Men’s Singles semi-final of the 2011 BWF Super Series Finals, in Liu Zhou, China, on Saturday, December 17.
Long, who is World Number Three at the moment, has won against the World Number One, Chong Wei, for the third time in previous two months indicating that he has grown up to the highest level of maturity. With this victory, the Chinese has ended the tremendous
run of the Malaysian in the Super Series Finals, who grabbed the opening three editions of this tournament.
The semi-final showdown was an exciting fight between the giants of badminton as both players are known for their aggression and speed. Long played well in the opening game and bagged it with a good margin.
However, Chong Wei made a strong comeback to level the score by taking the second game. The Chinese cheered the home crowd by winning the final set with a decent score and emerged as the winner of this three-set match after working hard for 80 minutes.
Because of Chong Wei’s dip in form and Long’s phenomenal performances in different events for the last three months, it was a fifty-fifty match on the paper. The Chinese was having an extra edge over his Malaysian challenger, as he was having the support
of huge home crowd. He played to his full potential in the opening game and won it with a convincing margin of 21-16.
In the following game, the Malaysian played with precision and executed powerful and accurate strokes from all areas of the court. His speed and perfection troubled the flow of his Chinese opponent, who was trailing behind in this game. Long failed to play
at the level of his opponent in this set and lost it by a 16-21 score on the board.
In the final game, both shuttlers put up an exciting fight by playing at highest level of the game. They remained close until the concluding points of this deciding set. At this stage, Long played up to the expectations of the local crowd and won the game
with a decent difference of 21-18. The overall score of this wonderful fight was 21-16, 16-21 and 21-18.
In the final of the tournament, Long will take on his experienced team-mate, Lin Dan, who defeated Denmark’s top shuttler, Peter Hoeg Gade, in the other semi-final of the event.
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