Lin Dan edges past Simon Santoso in quarter-final of the 2011 Singapore Open Super Series
China’s Lin Dan had to dig deep into his arsenal to produce some fascinating and timely strokes to beat Indonesia’s Simon Santoso, in the Men’s Singles quarter-final of the 2011 Singapore Open Super Series, held in Singapore, on June 17, 2011.
The World Number Two, Lin, worked extra hard to get rid of the stubborn Indonesian in a rubber-set match.
The young Indonesian got off to a wonderful start in the opening game, as he was playing superbly against the Chinese, who is the reigning Olympic Champion. Simon was playing with great precision against an aggressive Lin and reached at 11-6, in the first-half
of the game.
Santoso remained focused in the game and stretched the difference by reaching at 17-12. He won the opening set against the Chinese in impressive fashion with a 21-14 margin, in just 15 minutes.
The second set was a complete turnaround of the opening game, where the Chinese played to his full potential against a spirited Santoso and reached 18-12, without showing any sign of slowing down. It became very difficult for the Indonesian to cope up with
the pace of the impressive Chinese. Lin levelled the match by grabbing the game in wonderful fashion with a score of 21-13, in 19 minutes.
The match took an interesting turn in the final game, where Santoso was the first to take a lead of 6-4, which was levelled by the Chinese at 7-7. At the interval of the set, the Chinese was ahead at 11-9.
Santoso scored three successive points after getting back into the court from the interval. He built a gap of three points by reaching 15-12 and was successful in putting pressure on the Chinese. However, Lin overcame the pressure and scored eight consecutive
points to reach 20-15.
Santoso surprisingly levelled the score by clinching five points in a row. The score was 20-20, when Lin managed to win the fight by a 22-20 margin, in 26 minutes. The ending score of this 60-minute entertaining fight was 14-21, 21-13 and 22-20.
In the semi-final, Lin Dan will take on Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark, who thrashed Du Pengyu of China in the quarter-final match.
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