Indian Express : Lin Dan will retire after Japan Open Lin Dan’s defeat in the World Championship final has prompted fresh conjecture that the Chinese super star could soon call time on his brilliant career. The 33-year-old “Super Dan” said after losing Sunday’s showdown to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in Glasgow that he would immediately return for China’s National Games and then play at next month’s Japan Open. “After that I have no plans,” said Lin, indicating he might soon call it a day. “It will be difficult to play in the World Championships at 34.” But the two-time Olympic and five-time world champion, regarded widely as the greatest singles player of all time, mixed his message by adding that reaching the final against a player 10 years younger “showed that I am still strong enough physically”. Lin was the bad boy of Chinese sport in his younger days, with a rap sheet that included hitting a coach. And he has hinted at retirement before, only to lough on. Lin proved his enduring quality in Scotland by beating South Korea’s world number one Son Wan-Ho in the semi-finals, before going down to the 23-year-old Axelsen in what felt like a changing of the guard. “It is unbelievable to beat Lin Dan, I have been watching him for years,” said the Dane. As he nears the end of his career, Lin has been cherry- picking his tournament appearances to help extend his time at the top, like 36-year-old Roger Federer who has enjoyed a resurgence this year to win two tennis grand slams. Lin has fallen to seventh in the world rankings and fans on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, where he has 3.75 million followers, said he lost the final to Old Father Time rather than his Danish opponent. “The best players will always lose to time/age in the end. Even in defeat Lin Dan deserves to be honoured and respected. You will always be Super Dan,” said one. But many were more concerned with Lin’s love life which has made more headlines than his badminton in the past year. The once sky-high popularity of the tattooed shuttler — it is rare for Chinese athletes to have tattoos — has never recovered fully despite Lin apologising in November last year for an affair with a model while his wife and former badminton starlet Xie Xingfang was pregnant. Observers said Lin showed his advancing years had slowed him in the defeat to world number three Axelsen. “We all hoped to see Super Dan continue his legacy, but objectively speaking there’s a 10-year age gap between the two players, think about the extra effort that has to be put in,” commentator Tong Kexin said on state television after the defeat. Many people expected Lin to retire after last summer’s Rio Olympics, where he surrendered his title and lost the bronze-medal match to Axelsen. But a reply Lin gave to Chinese media offers an insight into why he continues to defy expectations. Asked in 2014 what he would say in a retirement speech if given only one minute, he answered: “I would say ‘I don’t want to go’ and repeat it for 60 seconds.”
if one of them starts to fade really fast in the next 12 months the motivation aspect will become a one way street. From a fans point of view it may not be the same intense rivalry watching them meet in the early rounds instead of the semis or finals.
the dragon, the indian, the viking and the return of the rising sun. as father time creeps along the two uncles are also more susceptible to early round upsets at the hands of distant cousins.
he plays for the usa. that should explain a lot. maybe he gamed the qualifying rules and found a partner who had enough notional points, and/or he paid off higher ranked usa players to not enter. usa also had a xd entry that, frankly... oh never mind.
Lin Dan's shocking revelation about Today's Beijing vs Shanghai match : '' I was about to sleep in the match today as I haven't recovered from my Jet lag at all.''
The risks are not worth it and the stakes are too high. Nobody in China dares to take chances with Xi Jinping's resolve and he has gone further than leaders before him, including ex-Premier Zhu Rongji who said “What is clear is that the Central Committee is resolute in fighting corruption. Unless this problem is fixed, China can’t prosper. In fighting corruption we must ‘first fight the tiger, then the wolf’ [attack the strongest targets before the weaker]. We mustn’t go easy on the ‘tigers’; I’ve prepared 100 coffins here, 99 are for corrupt officials, 1 is for me, put simply it’s something I’ll take to the grave, my repayment is the development of a stable national government and the trust of the common people.” And again, on March 19 1998: “No matter if it’s earth shattering thunder or a bottomless chasm ahead of me, I’ll press on, duty-bound, entirely devoted, to the end of my days.” So much so that there's lately talk of XJP's anti-corruption drive being so extensive and successful that it may be an overkill. China now cares a lot about soft power, the nations's image is important to them as they strive for their China Dream.
I was thinking for Lin Dan and LCW, it may be better if they play their strongest rivals and main threats , CL, VA, SK, SWH, KM(?) early on before the final or even SF where they aren't too physically stretched and tap on their vast experience to deal with it and hopefully progress to the final to face lesser opponents. To be frank, I said in my earlier posts that i believe Lin Dan is never going to win anything big again from now on. The same applies to LCW. At most they can grab the occasional title in between the majors where some or most of the top players are not at their peak or choose to be absent for strategic reasons or simply unwinding after a major tournament.
Yeah, jetlag and, perhaps,some mental fatigue. He is known to have difficulty getting to sleep on the plane,as Wang Xin once revealed.
No, I now think Lin Dan won't retire after Japan Open where he's obliged to play by Yonex contractually. For the past few years, Lin Dan has been making only short-term plans of about six months or so. I suppose the Japan Open is included in the existing schedule as well as the all-important China National Games. After that, he might take a short break skipping the French and Denmark Opens but play the host tournament, China Open in November. I doubt he'll go to Dubai SSF. Incidentally, Chen Long is skipping both the Korea and Japan Opens, taking part only in the mandatory CNG.
If China were to suddenly have another one or two youngsters,apart fro Shi Yuqi who is not such a big threat to Lin Dan yet, rise through the ranks quickly to challenge the best in the world, Lin Dan's position in CBA may become precarious. Personally, I doubt he will be going to Tokyo, really pushing it. As it is, he already has Chen Long to vie with him for the same honours and goals, including a spot to the Tokyo Olympics. In this regard, LCW is luckier, he is very much still Malaysia's best hope, no one in the horizon can unseat his position in BAM, at most one arises to challenge him for one of the two OG spots.
Lin Dan Stat show Capturing a mammoth 10,200 points in the BWF World Championships, Lin Dan is now ranked 4th in the BWF Men's Singles ranking 32 = Most Wins in the entire Top 10 in 2017 701 = The only player along with Lee Chong Wei to have played more than 700 BWF Tournament matches. @samkool
I also read somewhere that to all players in all disciplines who have played at least 150 tournament matches, LD has the highest winning rate at 87.x %. Which I happen to dispute, since I believe PJB rarely lost in those days.
Well it's true that he "bought" his way in, but not in a bribery kind of way... He simply have time and resources to enter more international tournaments than his peers, with a better partner. You need some WR points to enter tournaments that will gain you even more WR points, so you do need to travel a lot to climb the ladder, if you are a player from the Americas. It's like a snowball rolling down the hill. His "challengers" however, can't afford to roll as far... When asked about it, Fogharty says that he is doing nothing wrong, he enters tournaments and play, and his WR is higher for that reason, so he qualifies. If you don't like it, the system is to blame. Somehow he is right. However sad that may sound... :-( If US federation had resources to develop talents and send them out to tournaments on a regular basis, this wouldn't be a problem, I guess. Cheers, FB
National Games of China 2017 Father Time finally catches up with Chinese legend ‘Super Dan’, but how long will he go on? Chinese ace leaves many fans asking how long he will continue in the game after his world championship defeat PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 August, 2017, 3:43pm UPDATED : Tuesday, 29 August, 2017, 9:43pm Lin Dan reacts during the final against Viktor Axelsen at BWF Badminton World Championships 2017 in Glasgow. Photo: Xinhua Agence France-Presse 1 Sep 2017 Lin Dan’s defeat in the world championship final has prompted fresh conjecture that the Chinese superstar could soon call time on his brilliant badminton career. The 33-year-old “Super Dan” said after losing Sunday’s showdown to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in Glasgow that he would immediately return for China’s National Games and then play at next month’s Japan Open. “After that I have no plans,” said Lin, indicating he might soon call it a day. “It will be difficult to play in the World Championships at 34.” But the two-time Olympic and five-time world champion, regarded widely as the greatest singles player of all time, mixed his message by adding that reaching the final against a player 10 years younger “showed that I am still strong enough physically”. Lin Dan stand on the podium with his silver medal after defeat by Denmark’s Axelsen. Photo: AFP Lin was the bad boy of Chinese sport in his younger days, with a rap sheet that included hitting a coach. And he has hinted at retirement before, only to plough on. Lin proved his enduring quality in Scotland by beating South Korea’s world number one Son Wan-Ho in the semi-finals, before going down to the 23-year-old Axelsen in what felt like a changing of the guard. “It is unbelievable to beat Lin Dan, I have been watching him for years,” said the Dane. As he nears the end of his career, Lin has been cherry-picking his tournament appearances to help extend his time at the top, like 36-year-old Roger Federer who has enjoyed a resurgence this year to win two tennis grand slams. Axelsen celebrates after scoring during the final against Lin Dan. Photo: Xinhua Lin has fallen to seventh in the world rankings and fans on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, where he has 3.75 million followers, said he lost the final to Old Father Time rather than his Danish opponent. “The best players will always lose to time/age in the end. Even in defeat Lin Dan deserves to be honoured and respected. You will always be Super Dan,” said one. Lin Dan scandal racks up 2.5 billion views on Weibo But many were more concerned with Lin’s love life which has made more headlines than his badminton in the past year. The once sky-high popularity of the tattooed shuttler – it is rare for Chinese athletes to have tattoos – has never recovered fully despite Lin apologising in November last year for an affair with a model while his wife and former badminton starlet Xie Xingfang was pregnant. Lin Dan gave mixed messages about how long he would continue after the defeat. Photo: AFP Observers said Lin showed his advancing years had slowed him in the defeat to world number three Axelsen. “We all hoped to see Super Dan continue his legacy, but objectively speaking there’s a 10-year age gap between the two players, think about the extra effort that has to be put in,” commentator Tong Kexin said on state television after the defeat. Lin Dan apologises as pictures of badminton star having affair while wife was pregnant blow up Chinese internet Many people expected Lin to retire after last summer’s Rio Olympics, where he surrendered his title and lost the bronze-medal match to Axelsen. But a reply Lin gave to Chinese media offers an insight into why he continues to defy expectations. Asked in 2014 what he would say in a retirement speech if given only one minute, he answered: “I would say ‘I don’t want to go’ and repeat it for 60 seconds.” This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Father time catching up with fading ‘Super Dan’
