Lin Dan brushes aside Chen Jin in the Men’s Singles quarter-final of the French Open Super Series
China’s reigning Olympic gold medallist, Lin Dan had to dig deep to beat his compatriot Chen Jin in the Men’s Singles quarter-final of the 2011 French Open Super Series, on Friday, October 28, at Paris, France.
The World Number Three Dan has been playing shaky badminton for the last two months. However, he managed to beat Jin in the quarter-final battle after working hard for three sets. He took 85 minutes of hard labour to get rid of his opponent and advanced
into Men’s Singles semi-final of the French Open.
Dan opened his campaign against his team-mate in a completely confused way as he failed to find momentum. His execution of strokes was not accurate which put him in trouble against the former World Champion Jin, who played positive game in the opening half.
The World Number Five, Jin established a stunning lead in against the higher ranked compatriot by playing aggressive and perfect game. Dan failed to dominate the game and also committed many unforced errors and consequently lost the first game with a surprising
difference of 11-21.
In the second set, Dan changed his plan and started to take the bird early at the net. He played fast cross-court net strokes which disturbed the flow of his challenger. The score progressed equally from both sides and entered into the closing points.
Dan became quicker in all areas by accelerating his speed. He started o execute smashes to put pressure on his opponent and remained successful in taking the second set with a close margin of 21-19.
In the decider, Dan played with complete control from the opening rallies and maintained the speed at the highest level. Jin became a little slow in this game which helped his opponent to build a reasonable gap. Dan took advantage of the slow speed of Jin
and won the set with a good score of 21-16. The 85-minute battle ended with a margin of 11-21, 21-19 and 21-16.
In the semi-final match, Dan will be up against Japan’s Kenichi Tago, who defeated Hu Yun of Hong Kong in the other quarter-final showdown.
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