Beijing: World No. 3 and two-time Olympic Champion Lin Dan was the hero for team Beijing on Thursday when he won the third and decisive point of the 2016 China national badminton team championships final against Lin Yuanrui from team Hunan.
Lin Dan seemed troubled by the aggressive Lin Yuanrui at the beginning of the first set. Fortunately, Lin Dan’s great experience on the badminton court allowed him to edge past Lin Yuanrui 21-16 in the first set.
Lin Dan who will celebrate his 33rd birth day on Friday (Oct 14th), became more proactive in the second set to counter Lin Yuanrui’s aggression and to help Beijing win the men’s team title after seeing off Lin Yuanrui 21-12.
There were no big changes for Beijing’s lineup compared to the semi-finals on Thursday, where Qiao Bin who won the Korea Open Superseries men’s singles title two weeks ago needed 50 only minutes to beat Hunan’s Zhou Zeqi 21-13, 21-12 to give Beijing a 1-0 lead.
Zhang Nan/Yu Xiaoyu then grabbed the upper hands in the first men’s doubles match thanks to their superior offense, aggressiveness and mental confidence. Beijing raced to a 2-0 lead after Zhang/Yu defeated Chai Biao/Chen Zhuofu of Hunan.
In women’s team final, team Guangdong that spearheaded by Sun Yu, Chen Chingchen, Ou Dongni completed a great escape, clinching the women’s team title against Zhejiang with 3-2.
