sports players always have forms up and down... I wouldn't use one match to judge that sudden he's old, suddenly his technique withers, suddenly he's downhill... LCW outplayed LD this match, simply because he performs better... remember the similar scenario in March 2009?? LD defeated LCW in straight sets in AE, a week later, LCW revenged a straight set victory at Swiss Open, but then lost again later in Sudirman Cup and China Mastar.This year they did similarly in KO and AE, let's see what will happen for the rest of the year... don't forget that LCW also consistently score at least a win over LD every year, everytime LCW wins, fans (even LCW and his coach) also claimed that LCW now finds the way to beat LD, yet at the end of the year, their win-loss ratio is still the same (LD:LCW at about 2:1). maybe scoring a win over LD at AE is a big step forward (in defeating LD at a major's final), let see how this morale boost could help LCW to finally becoming a real on-par rival with LD on H2H record after so many years...
Watching the best play is always the most exciting... Lee Chong Wei showed us all what he can do, congrats to him he really deserves it. All the hardwork and effort finally paid dividends. Lin Dan needs to maintain his vigor and focus if he wants to still compete at the highest level from here on.
LCW is very impressive at AE 2011 in terms of performance. He finished all opponents in two games, and LD is the only player that got the highest score (17 points) from him.
