Wuhan: Lin Dan, chasing a fifth men’s singles Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) title, raced into the second round as the two-time Olympic champion made a less speedy but still successful start to beat Lu Chia Hung of Taiwan 21-11, 21-17 in the men’s opener on Wednesday.
However, after the match Lin thought he still has room for improvement and would need to find his rhythm in upcoming games. Lin will take on Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the second round, whom he defeated in the first round of Malaysia Open on April 3, 2019.
Lin Dan’s goal was to get some good warm-up through BAC before the start of Olympic qualification on April 29.
“Everyone knows that China can only send two players to next year’s Olympic Games, I’ll have to face the cruel reality, I can only try my best to compete for the two available spots,” said Lin Dan.
Lin Dan told the media that competing for Tokyo Olympics will be extremely tough for him.
“Nowadays, the gap between men’s singles player is getting smaller and smaller. It’s tough for any players to win every game,” added Lin.
Meanwhile, World No. 1 Kento Momota asserted his dominance against Lee Dong Keun of Korea, seeing off the Korean player 21-18, 21-17 in 62 minutes. Momota will face Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the second round.
In other men’s singles first round matches, Hong Kong’s unseeded Angus Ng Ka Long pulled off a stunning upset to down Indonesia’s No. 6 seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-18, 18-21, 25-23 in 74 minutes.
“We have played against each other many times and are very familiar with each other’s playing style. He is now one of the strongest players in the world. So when I was facing him, I played with no pressure and that allowed me to execute my game plan better,” said Ng who will battle Sameer Verma on Thursday.
Malaysia’s Cheam June Wei was defeated by Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand 21-14, 19-21, 16-21 on Wednesday.
