Lee Hyun Il confounds Chen Jin in Men’s Singles quarter-final – London Olympics Update
Korea’s Lee Hyun Il put a laudable effort in quarter-finals against Chen Jin and secured berth in Men’s Singles semi-finals of London Olympics on Thursday, August 2, 2012.
This crucial encounter, which was staged at Wembley Arena, was resolved in just two games with final figures of 21-15 and 21-16.
World Number ten shuttler Lee performed beyond expectations and stunned his higher ranked rival in both games.
The Chinese campaigner, who was among the frontrunners in the race of Olympic medal, put a below par performance and crashed out of the mega event.
Though, stats favoured the World Number four player Chen Jin as he had dominated in eight out of last twelve meetings but story was entirely different in this showdown and he failed to revive his old touch as he surrendered tamely.
On the other hand, the veteran shuttler Lee employed all of his brilliance and sealed a splendid straight-set win to setup semi-final clash with the badminton king Lin Dan.
The Korean maestro laid foundation of his dominance immediately in the opening game as he prevailed in couple of uninterrupted rallies.
He carried this rhythm and kept adding vital points in his total at a steady pace. He finished first half with a respectable score position of 11.
After the interval, he injected more intensity in his attack and cornered the opposing shuttler with couple of continuous points. He managed to go with same flow in final stage and bagged first set with a notable margin of 21-15.
The Chinese shuttler could not come out of his competitor’s influence also in the following game.
First sign of trouble came when Chen Jin could not withstand intensive invasion of Lee and got pale straight away in the beginning.
He was wavered and could not place his strokes in the right areas. He committed back-to-back unforced errors which ultimately cost him a semi-final ticket.
Meanwhile, the Korean played with great precision and outclassed his opponent in all areas of the game.
He strengthened his grip in third quarter of the set and then maintained this upper hand to sweep the table with significant total of 21-16.
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