Super Dan spearheads PLA badminton team at National Games
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"Super Dan", as Chinese top shuttler Lin Dan was nicknamed, led Peple's Liberation Army (PLA) to beat Hong Kong 3-1 in the first round of men's team badminton tournament at China's 11th National Games in Qingdao on Thursday.
Lin, world No. 2, served as PLA's second singles player and beat Wong Wing Ki from Hong Kong 21-10, 21-17.
"I was a little bit nervous in the first set but restored my composure in the second,"said Lin after the match.
Acturally Lin won easily in the first set at 21-10 but received a tough challenge from Wong in the second but Lin finally notched up the match 21-17.
"PLA is not expected to be a strong candidate for men's team champion."added Lin. "We have to fight hard match by match."
Lin crowned in the world championships this year in India and became the first player to win three world titles in a row and only the second to hold the Olympic and world titles at the same time. He has also kept a good form recently by clinching the title in China Masters in September.
China's No. 3 men's singles player Bao Chunlai, representing Hunan, defeated Liu Jingru of Shandong in a comfortable way at 21-18, 21-5, putting Hunan on the right track for the 3-0 victory.
Bao said after the match,"I was under pressure from Shandong fans and my opponent fought very hard in the first set. However, I found my rhythm in the later match and gained the upper hand."
When talking about his singles tour at the National Games, Bao said,"I will do my utmost as there will be many tough rivals."
Chen Hong, former world champion, made a good start for Fujian by nipping Du Pengyu of Beijing 21-18, 17-21, 21-12 and helped Fujian seal the win 3-1.
In other matches, Guangdong came from behind to beat Hubei 3-2 and Liaoning frustrated Shanghai 3-2.
Earlier in the first round of women's team competition in the morning, Guangdong nipped Fujian 3-0. Olympic runner-up and world No. 6 Xie Xingfang served as Guangdong's first singles player, beating Wang Yini 21-11, 21-7.
"I'm now back in good form,"said Xie after the match, who may retire after the National Games.
In the 3-1 victory that Zhejiang beat Hong Kong, the duel between current world No. 1-2 Wang Lin and Zhou Mi was highlighted with the victory going to Wang 22-20, 20-15.
"I'm not physically well recently but I played well today. Though I lost to Wang Lin, I enjoyed the whole match,"said Zhou.
Hunan beat Liaoning 3-0, Shanghai defeated Shandong 3-0, Hubei outlasted PLA 3-1 and Jiangsu overcame Sichuan 3-0.
According to the schedule, two team events will be played from Oct. 8 to 13 while five singles and doubles events are slated from Oct. 14 to 18.
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