Lee Chong Wei shows signs of pressure in his first encounter at 2012 London Olympics
Malaysia’s best Men’s Singles player Lee Chong Wei was under huge pressure as he showed a quivering performance in his first clash in Group A when he narrowly defeated Finland’s Ville Lang at the 2012 London Olympics on Monday, July 30, in England.
Chong Wei, who is currently placed at number two in Men’s Singles world placements, have been struggling really hard and was racing against time to get fit in a period of six weeks after getting an ankle injury in the last week of May at the Thomas Cup Finals
in China.
However, he showed no signs of pain in his ankle anymore while playing against his lower ranked Finnish opponent but a huge pressure was there on him especially after recovering from injury.
The 29-year-old Malaysian started it well and took the first game easily but failed to gain a good momentum in the second set. Nevertheless, he showed his brilliance in the concluding half of final game and won the battle in hard-fought three games.
After the match, Chong Wei said that he was playing under pressure and could not get rid of it.
He stated, “I am under pressure and that is not something that I can control. It was a poor performance and I admit that I could not play my normal game at all. Never once did it cross my mind that I will lose this match but it was a good workout for me
and I need to iron out certain aspects of my game.”
In the opening set, Chong Wei was comfortable in his movement and play as well but he was a bit slow while taking the bird at net especially after executing smashes from the rear court area which indicates that he has not yet got rid of psychological effects
of the injury.
Chong Wei was good in drives and he remained calm and composed to finish the set with a commanding 21-8 score on the board.
In the following set, Chong Wei remained close until 6-6 when he started to lose his focus as he threw many points out from side lines and failed to maintain his rhythm and eventually lost the set with a 14-21 score on the board.
The deciding game was also close until the interval when he was just ahead of Lang at 11-10.
However, the Malaysian hero showed his brilliance after the break and wrapped up the final game with a 21-11 margin on score board.
Chong Wei won his first match at London Olympics in three games with a reasonable score of 21-8, 14-21 and 21-11.
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