China' s Lin Dan trashes U.S. player to advance
Xinhua, August 11, 2015 Adjust font size:
China' s mens' singles top player Lin Dan trashed easily his contender from the United States Sattawat Pongnairat in his first match at international badminton tournament of 2015 World Championship here on Tuesday.
Lin Dan went easily to win the match against the non-seeded player Pongnairat in two straight games ended in 36 minutes with scores of 21-8 and 21-11.
The match was marred with light protest from both players upon a point resulted from a cue that fell slightly touch the baseline on Lin Dan side that justified by the umpire as a score for Pongnairat.
Lin Dan was highly expected to vie against his arch rival, the Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the tournament with the final round scheduled on Aug. 16.
Match between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei is always much-awaited by badminton fans, regarded as classical badminton match in modern days as the two players always demonstrated their high skills of playing in each effort to win the game.
Commenting on his possible meet with Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan said that he would take expectation to vie Chong Wei during early days of the championship that commenced on Monday.
"This championship would be very fierce particularly in matches against Denmark and Japan. They now have impressive players that getting stronger each time we met," Lin Dan told a press conference after the match against Pongnairat.
He added that he would focus to play better and win each match he is scheduled to go through in the tournament rather than thinking about vying against lee Chig Wei.
"I am now 32 years old and so is Lee Chong Wei. We don' t have much time left in our career. Our performance would recede. So I would treasure the memory of every match against Chong Wei," Lin Dan said.
Lee Chong Wei was scheduled to vie against a Lithuanian player Kestutis Navickas later in the day in the tournament held in Indonesia' s capital landmark badminton arena of Istora Senayan. Endi