WZM's bad habit is to play an excellent attacking shot only to follow it up with a loose shot, although it's happening less frequently lately, esp in this tournament where he's playing quite well so far.
Now is LD playing serious? Two beautiful points - a cross-court return and a backhand smash down the line!
WZM, since LD knows your game so well, you just got to be more creative and unpredictable in your shot-making.
WZM's level has dropped a bit and LD has REALLY increased the pace of these rallies. 11-6, 2nd game at mid game interval
The ability to make great reliable shots consistently is what good players are made of. I feel it is an added bonus if a player has an array of deceptive shots in his arsenal as well. WZM is trailing 9-15 and now made a service fault to fall further behind. It seems he is beginning to lose interest and now LD still leads 17-11. Seems difficult for WZM to catch up.
Once in a while WZM manages to outwit LD but most of the time he's clueless how to play his opponent.
So LD has won his fourth tournament this year? He seems to be acquitting himself well on his return to competition with this victory 21-19, 21-14.
Watching Lin Dan play nowadays is like seeing him creating a work of art, very enjoyable, such a pleasure.
Finally, Hendra Aprida Gunawan won his first GPG title in MD (despite having reached the top 5 before with Alvent Yulianto Chandra) with his new partner Andrei Adistia. AG just never kept trying and eventually, he reaped his reward which is an excellent present for him ahead of the Hari Raya next Monday! AG also won the Chinese-Taipei GPG title in XD with Vita Marissa (beating the then newly paired Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir) in 2010. So, Taipei seems to be a good hunting ground for AG! It's also good to see Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishinda Maheswari winning their 2nd GPG title after beating the former World No 1 Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang (for the 2nd time). This will be a good boost for the upcoming World Championships where the INA pair is expected to win a medal. So, 2 titles today and both are obtained in the hard way by beating CHN pairs. Congrats!
This week also saw Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Selvanus Geh reaching QF, having beaten the seeded KOR pair of Ko Sung Hyun/Shin Baek Cheol. It's a positive result for them and hopefully they can be more consistent in the upcoming tourneys. I have confidence in them reaching the top 30 by end of this year. The upcoming XD pair Alfian Eko Prasetya/Annisa Saufika also reached the Final (only to lose to CHN's Liu Yuchen/Yu Xiaohan) and they will be expected to also reach the top 20-30 by end of this year. I have a feeling they will be more promising than Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto.
A big win for Nitya/Greysia, they overcome two CHN WD en route to victory, well done and congrats What a solid performance by INA WD to beat the off-form Wang/Yu. Just only hope Nitya/Greysia consistency in next tourney, beside 4 CHN pairs in WC, Japanese pairs should pose big threat particularly Matsutomo/Takahashi. Indeed, 2 GPG, 1 Continental champ and 1 SS title so far for the comeback LD, too bad he can't defend his WC title in Copenhagen next month.
Good to see another WD team able to challenge the Chinese ladies. Not just Yu Yang, Wang is also not in form. I wonder why. I never saw them make so many mistakes. But both INA ladies played so well. They should be able to give Yu/Wang a good fight even when Yu/Wang is at the top of their game.
The Indonesian pair of NKM/GP played as they had never played before to beat WXL/YY in straight games. The Chinese just could not respond to the speed of the Indonesians and so was the crowd who didn't expect such a display. LD's win was just like a stroll in the park and it wouldn't be long before he challenges LCW for the top spot.