China’s Lin Dan beats Ajfan Rasheed in first round of Badminton Asia Championships 2011
China’s Lin Dan faced no trouble in beating Ajfan Rasheed of Maldives in the men’s singles first round of the Badminton Asia Championships 2011 on Tuesday.
The top seed Lin took only 22 minutes to beat Rasheed in a one-sided match. In the second round of the event, Lin will meet either Zakirov Rafael of Uzbekistan or Amar Awad of Syria.
In the absence of Lee Chong Wei, the world number one shuttler from Malaysia, Lin is enjoying the top place in the men’s singles seeding in this home event.
The top seed started the first set in a brisk manner and his movement proved that he is completely fit now. He quickly established a comfortable lead of 8-3 that put the opponent under pressure. Rasheed tried to match the incredible speed of the Chinese
but failed to continue it as he lost control over rallies and made many errors.
Lin was leading the game with a 11-5 margin at the end of the first half of the opening set. He continued his impressive progress in the match after the interval. Rasheed failed to return the powerful down-the-line smashes of the Chinese, who was moving
around in the court with great ease. Lin finished the first set in just 10 minutes with a 21-11 score on the board.
In the second set of the match, Lin remained relaxed but quick at the net that pushed his opponent on the back foot. His movement was very smooth and he was picking the bird very early. He established a wonderful difference of 11-1 in the first part of the
second set.
Rasheed had no answer to the perfectly executed strokes of his opponent. The Chinese stretched his lead after the one-minute interval and spared no chance for the opponent to fight back in the match.
Lin finished the second set with a big margin of 21-8 consuming only 12 minutes in the court. The final score of the 22-minute match was 21-11, 21-8.
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