Datuk Lee Chong Wei
BIRMINGHAM: World number one Datuk Lee Chong Wei, who deferred retirement after the Olympics to make a few last attempts on the major titles, found himself denied in Sunday’s final of the All-England Open.
Chong Wei also found himself with an impressive new rival, Chen Long, a 24-year-old from Shashi, who fought off brave fight-backs by the favourite in each game to triumph 21-17, 21-18.
Last year Chong Wei lost the title to Lin Dan. Now the Chinese legend may have a good successor, on the evidence of Chen’s marvellous containment and rallying ability, and increasing patience and judgement on when to make pouncing attacks.
Chen also carried himself like a champion. He never panicked when the match got tight, and handled the pressure like a player who may go on to win many more big titles.
“This is very important – a top, world class tournament, and winning it has given me a lot of experience,” he said. “I am very excited about that.”
It suggests that Lin may not need to come out of semi-retirement and make an attempt to defend the world title in Guangzhou in August for China to win it again.
For Chong Wei this was a disappointment. The 30-year-old started both games slowly. He was 0-7 down before he got going, and 1-6 down in the second game, and both deficits proved a little too much to make up. He moved beautifully as usual, but could not force his attacks through Chen’s brilliant defence when he tried to ambush the second seed, and did not have quite enough energy in the tank to apply pressure with a few extra-fast rallies. — AFP=