Lin Dan through to final after shaky start

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CAPTION: China’s Lin Dan eyes a return against Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh during their men’s singles semi-final match at the World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province. Lin won 21-17, 21-15. — AFP photo

GUANGZHOU: Defending world and Olympic champion Lin Dan is through to the final of the badminton world championships in Guangzhou, China after a shaky start against a fired-up underdog.

The women’s singles will see top seed Li Xuerui of China take on Thai 18-year-old Ratchanok Intanon, who outplayed fellow teen PV Sindhu in their semi-final.

But China will not achieve a third straight clean sweep of the world championships after their men’s doubles pair lost out to Indonesia.

Chinese superstar Lin, widely regarded as badminton’s best ever player, took on Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh, seeded seventh.

Dancing around the court, the agile Vietnamese player, 30 – who became Vietnam’s first ever world Championships medallist by reaching the semi-finals – won applause from the partisan crowd with a cheeky over-the-shoulder return as Lin took his time to find his feet.

Lin, who is back on court after almost a year on the sidelines to spend time with his family, slipped behind in the first game after misjudging Nguyen’s early returns.

But as the match went on, he injected pace and attacking play with jump smashes and unreachable shots down the line, taking the first 21-17.

The second game saw the tenacious Vietnamese player, who has never beaten Lin, give his all in punchy rallies and force Lin to dive around the court.

Though his game was error-prone, Lin eventually outpowered and outmanoeuvered Nguyen to take the second 21-15.

“I haven’t really played any world level matches over the past year and it’s unbelievable that I’ve got into the finals. I’m really happy,” Lin said after the match.

In philosophical mood, he said he had stopped caring so much about winning and that family life had helped him curb his on-court temper.

“I don’t care too much about the result, I just want to do my best,” he said.

“My better temper is to do with my family because after getting married I have to take responsibility.”

He praised Nguyen as a hard-working player who he admires – the Vietnamese veteran often trains and travels on his own, without the extensive support network of the bigger badminton nations.

“I felt today everything was OK, but I was a little bit tired because yesterday I played (Danish Jan O) Jorgensen,” Nguyen said.

“I don’t think (Lin) played well. He made so many mistakes, but he is experienced and in the end he knows how to get the points.”

China’s Li strolled to a 21-5, 21-11 win against Bae Yeon-Ju of Korea in the women’s singles while India’s Sindhu was unable to cope with Intanon’s power and precision losing 10-21, 13-21.

“If I win tomorrow it will make history for Thailand because we have only ever reached the semi-finals,” Intanon said after the match.  — AFP