LD tried two top spin cross court shots, one forehand and the other backhand which failed to fool VA. VA was very alert. That may have an impact on the match.
Yes, had Lin Dan closed out the 1st game at 20-19, the pressure would be more on VA while Lin Dan could afford to change strategy, either go all out in G2 or continue to feel VA's pulse to see if he's wavering before stepping it up and pile it on until the younger man breaks, knowing VA's temperament. Alas, it's just not Lin Dan's day. I feel that Lin Dan played his best in the semifinals with Son Wan Ho and was half-spent going into the final. On final's day, Lin Dan appeared slower, even sluggish for the most part, his smashes was few and far between, even his trademark dive retrievals weren't much in evidence and, worse, he was more error-prone than the day before. Just count the number of times he cleared long and other simple mistakes compared with his match against SWH. Sadly, I have to admit I don't think Lin Dan can win anymore majors henceforth where every player from the highest to the lowest come fully prepared to give their all. Undeniably, willy-nilly, age has caught up with him and time is running out, the Nanjing WC'18 might be his last hurrah, hopefully; forget about Tokyo 2020, he may not even qualify for one of the two OG spots as Team CHN can easily find two MS players to outrank him the next couple of years. As it is,judging from what he said at the post-match press conference, it seems he's not going to retire anytime soon. I suspect if he's still able to score a couple of good results by his standards going forward, say PSS/SS titles (or Grade 2 Level 2 events based on the new BWF structure), he would probably carry on for as long as he believes he has a fighting chance to deliver the goods, who knows, for how long more. I repeat, if not for Lin Dan's awesome reputation and being the most decorated player in history, any 34-year-old appearing in the final of a World Championships is bound to make sports headlines everywhere. As we know, Badminton at the highest level is an extremely physically demanding sport, it's not like chess where a 40-year-old player is still very much in his prime. Nay, it's not even like 100m sprint or 100m swimming where it's all over in 10 seconds for the former and under a minute for the latter per seession, from the heats to the finals, as compared with a six-round badminton world championships.
At the Glasgow WC, Lin Dan actually had a day off after R1 as a few others but it didn't make much of a difference to him as there were five consecutive rounds after that. I was wondering if the day off is before the finals as in the Olympics, would Lin Dan fare better on Final's Day ? He might not drop G1 and then anything can happen after that as he himself intimated at the press conference. Sigh.That's water under the bridge now.
Actually, I felt if Lin Dan was little more clinical, he could have run away with G1 when he created a bit of a breathing space for himself especially at 16-14....But a bit of usual free flow was missing in his game...knowing how his team mate Chen Long succumbed to those attacks coming from 2nd floor.....He had to remain invested in defence which isn't his default style.
That wild cross error LD did at 20-20 at the first game shook and cost him. Almost like LCW's attempted cross court kill during first game against CL in Rio. Plus his lifts to opponent's deep forehand bit him back; he simply didn't find the correct lengths on those shots consistently all game.
How Twitteristas saluted Lin Dan for reaching Worlds Finale in a way BCers couldn't come up with Mostly Indians so you won't find European humour in this Sundeep Misra @MisraSundeep Possibly the greatest singles badminton player of all time, Lin Dan, shows how to pace a match. Lin in final, 21-17, 21-14.#WorldBadminton 10:37 PM - Aug 26, 2017 Uma Maheswar @MeNdAx_53 World rank.. what? Age.. what? Lin Dan there #BWF2017 10:38 PM - Aug 26, 2017 N.Sudarshan @sudunarayan Has any racquet-wielding player ever combined offence and defence as well as Lin Dan? What a player ! krautela @krautela Watching #LinDan in full flow is ultimate joy in #Badminton!! karthik_ganesh13 @karthik_ganesh1 No wonder they call him the greatest player to have ever played the game of #badminton.. Take a bow #lindan @bwfmedia 10:42 PM - Aug 26, 2017 A K Sinha @ashoksinha03 #2017WBC : Lin Dan sails through to the finals. Defeats Son Won Ho of South Korea 21-17, 21 -14. Agility and stamina at 34 is praiseworthy . Putra Tegar @putrategar2709 Lin Dan doesn't need rank number one. Hmmm.... ForeverCanBegin @venice208 Lin dan is through to his 6th world championships finals #LinDansuch a pleasure to watch him in top form! V Krishnaswamy @Swinging_Swamy The 5 stars on Lin Dan’s left arm signify 5 World Champs titles - will he add a 6th star? @2017BWC @FirstpostSports 10:49 PM - Aug 26, 2017 Avinash Zaware @Avi_2weets It was n absolute display of sheer class by #LinDan treat to watch him in action..!! #Class #Legend#WorldBadmintonChampionship anjali banerjee @anjali_banerjee Stuff of a true legend, Lin Dan thwarting world no 1. Times when you battle with dearth of adjectives to describe a feat ! #2017BWC spherra @spherraonjune 5 world champ title and still counting. lindan is real GOAT. #2017BWC Vikram Sathaye ✔@vikramsathaye @rogerfederer ,Lin Dan @usainbolt you guys can't go man! Just can't ! Anurag Srivastava @iamanurag04 @rogerfederer @sachin_rt & #LinDan -same mould!You never get tired of watching them play&they never get tired of playing #Legends @bwfmedia https://www.sportskeeda.com/live/tw...s-his-7th-world-badminton-championships-final
Hey does anyone have any idea, that for how long was Lin Dan WR 1? I think from 2003 (end) to 2008 or 2009. @Justin L @Nine Tailed Fox
I now have the feeling that Lin Dan will carry on for as long as BWF, the tournament organizers and the big sponsors think he can still draw a crowd
This is not rocket science... When you have an intelligent player like LD, and a player with a great attack, like VA. The intelligent player WILL lift long occasionally, because he knows the price if he lifts too short. Simple equity math. It pays to gift a couple of points, if you gain 15% of a point on all your other lifts! Cheers, FB
I beg to differ, I agree more with dave010. One, in the semifinal with Son Wan Ho who is capable of smashing a number of winners from the backline , Lin Dan didn't lift that many shots long and he also defended better. Two, Lin Dan in his younger days when playing the superb attacker LCW, also didn't make that many mistakes of lifting long. There are other examples with, say, Chen Long, Chou Tien Chen, just to name two others. The point is if Lin Dan is up to it, he'd rather not lift long occasionally, gifting points, and let the opponent smash at him. Though the great attacking opponent can smash his lifts as often as possible, but if Lin Dan is able to lift with good lengths, not short, and return most of the smashes, the opponent wouldn't dare smash at him at will. Remember that match Lin Dan lost to the young Wang Tzu Wei at the INA Open in June ? Lin Dan didn't lift many shots long and was smashed at repeatedly , leaving him stranded time and again. After dropping G1, he was 9-19 way behind in G2 before he stepped it up and closed the gap to 18-19 , nine straight points on the trot ! That was a R1 match and he was a slow starter, probably trying to conserve energy r perhaps underestimated his opponent, but fatigued he was not. In the final match with VA at Glasgow, Lin Dan was half-spent, sluggish, and more error-prone than he was against SWH. Failing to close out G1 when 20-19 up was costly to him. In G2, despite fighting from 5-12 down to 16-19, the effort was beyond him as he simply didn't have the stamina to do it. IMHO, Lin Dan's best match was the one with SWH, not just because he won but how he played. No doubt, VA was in excellent form despite being pushed the full distance in R1 by Takuma Ueda and in the QFs by Chou Tien Chen, another hard-fought three-setter, and his game plan and reading of the game, first, against Chen Long in the semis and, then, against Lin Dan in the final was the winning factor,not forgetting Lin Dan's contributing factor aforementioned, and ,if I may add, VA's temperament was under control. Imagine, had Lin Dan actually took G1, would VA, who post-match admitted to being nervous throughout the match, start acting up in G2 ? Then, as Lin Dan said, 'If I had converted the game point,I would have been more stable in the second game and the pressure would have drifted on Viktor's side, hence why there was a desperation to convert it' , in which case, I feel the outcome would've been anybody's guess (what if VA became temperamental in G2 and G3 ?). To VA's credit,he was on top of his game at the right time, both against CL and LD. Let's see how far VA can go from here. That's just my opinion.
LIN Dan thanked supporters for giving him a wonderful reception upon arriving at Beijing Airport. LD assured them that he will do well in Chinese National Games
Veteran Shuttler Lee Chong Wei was full of praise for Lin Dan : At 34, he is still able to reach World Championships Final and He is also a consistent presence in Top 10. I too, will continue to represent Malaysia and participate in Next Year's Nanjing World Championships. I want to hit shuttles for few more years. So, expect more Lin - Lee Wars in the future.
DRAW for JAPAN OPEN is out And according to Nine Tailed Fox's permutation and combination, Lin Dan will win Japan Open. With 80% advantage in first round 75% advantage in second round 65% advantage in Quarter Final 60% advantage in Semi Final 80% advantage in Final
I don't think you understood me. Off course you have days where your lifts are good and days where you wish they were better! When they leave some room for improvement, it depends on the player on the other side, how much you will be punished. SWH (who I think is a great player) will NOT punished your short lifts the way VA will. Not only can VA hit his smash harder, he is also better at hitting them with a cut, but most important he will punish short lifts by hitting the return smash steeper than the majority of the field. And this is a real problem, if you have a bad day in the distance department. A player of LD's level (basically LD!) will know this. Against a different opponent, he will rely of his ability to read the shot and his incredible defense, and leave some lifts short. But against VA, he will let some of the variance sail past the back line, knowing the short lifts are a no go. Cheers, FB
