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Defending Thomas Cup champion China hitched a rollercoaster ride to arrive at its third consecutive Thomas Cup final after inching out Malaysia 3-2 in the 2008 Thomas Cup semi-finals in Jakarta. China dropped the first singles, clinched 2 consecutive points before dropping the second doubles and then claimed the deciding singles to storm into this Sunday’s final.

By Jan Lin, reporting live from Senayan Stadium, Jakarta. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

So the 16-year wait for the Thomas Cup is still not yet over for Malaysia, even as their world #2 Lee Chong Wei was the star of the day when he swept past world #1 Lin Dan (pictured top left) in comfortable straight games. Chong Wei’s sweet victory was not enough for Malaysia to crack the Great Wall of China this afternoon.

An inspired Chong Wei gave Lin Dan no chance to get into their match this afternoon. As Lee raced to a 7-0 lead in the first game, Lin Dan was completely dissociated with his killer instincts and slumbered to a defensive mode throughout the first game. The world #1 was repeatedly undone by his nerves, putting on one of his most erratic performances to bequeath Malaysia a crucial first point lead.

Chong Wei revealed at the post-match press conference, “Lin Dan is definitely not his usual self today. I think he must have been too nervous. He made the simplest mistakes, which he doesn’t usually make.”

The Malaysian has a knack for dismantling Chinese at team events. Chong Wei (pictured right) defeated Lin at the Sudirman Cup Mixed Team Championship last year in straight games, too. He said “I think the reason why I tend to play better in team tournaments is because I’m not playing just for myself, but for my team and that helps me to be sharper in my game as I’m determined to give my team the lead.”

Lin Dan, on the other hand, was clearly disappointed at not giving China the lead. Lin said, “Chong Wei had an edge over me this afternoon. He was faster and was able to control the game throughout.

“There was additional pressure on me this afternoon because we were aware that the Malaysian doubles are very strong, so taking 3 points from the singles would be the safest bet.”

Fortunately for the Chinese, though, Malaysia’s world #4 pair Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah were unable to bear the nation’s burden this afternoon as Choong was down with illness while Lee was injured.

This meant that world #5 Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong shouldered the responsibility of extending Malaysia’s lead to 2-0 by upsetting world #2 Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun. Koo/Tan have a relatively positive track record against the Chinese pair though Choong/Lee are still the Chinese pair’s Achilles heel.

Koo/Tan were not able to unravel their special touch this afternoon, with both players succumbing to an erratic display. Koo had his court-flying moments as often as he was caught at the net by Cai Yun, who demonstrated that he is just as skilful at the net as the 23-year-old Malaysian is.

The missing sparkle in Tan today was crucial to the Malaysian pair’s eventual defeat by scores of 21-16, 21-17. A disappointed Rexy commented at the post-match press conference “It is disappointing to see how my best pair of doubles is now struggling behind the other two. I will need to have a heart-to-heart time with Koo and Tan when we are back in Malaysia to rectify this before the Olympics.”

Fu/Cai, who managed to level the tie for China, revealed more insights into their victory, “Our game plan worked today. About 70-80% of our attacks were successful. Speed is the differentiating factor. We could push them to the back then placed the next shot close to the net, which made it difficult for them.

“We were actually under pressure when Lin Dan lost, but we are glad that we managed to maintain a positive frame of mind going into the game.”

With the tie at 1-1, it was once again anybody’s tie. Malaysian team captain, Wong Choong Hann, took centre court with a slim chance of putting Malaysia forward as his opponent was world #3 Bao Chunlai, but that did not stop the world #13 from giving his best shot.

Wong was menacing in the first game with his long rallies that often unsettled Bao, but Bao responded in the second game by finishing off each point quickly instead. The Chinese quickly wrapped up the second match to put his team 2-1 up with scores of 21-18, 21-7.

Malaysia’s #2 doubles pair for the night – Zakry Abdul Latif/Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari – was the next to have a go at breathing life into their country’s bid to make the final. The world #16 were not at all disturbed by the fact that their world #9 Chinese opponents – Xie Zhongbo/Guo Zhendong – are ranked 5 rungs above them.

Xie/Guo were forced to play like novices, especially with Xie’s inability to retrieve the drop shots that fell onto his side of the court today. The Malaysians have clearly done their homework well and unleashed a highly intelligent performance to bag a convincing 21-17, 21-15 victory and to level the tie at 2-all.

With China’s endless list of world beaters in the men’s singles event, their third singles representative for the night is the highly-ranked world #4 Chen Jin (pictured left). Malaysia was represented by world #20 Hafiz Hashim, who was at one point a shining star of Malaysia when he ended Malaysia’s 26-year All-England men’s singles title drought in 2003.

Hafiz has been struggling to return to his stellar self and there was little expectation on him to actually break the tie for Malaysia this afternoon. Hafiz did, however, put in a decent showing but was still not good enough to tame the Chinese and went down 21-12, 21-16. Malaysia’s men’s singles coach, Misbun Sidek said, “I must say that Hafiz did well and gave the best of his current form this afternoon, but this is still not Hafiz at his best.”

The Chinese were not entirely surprised by how tight the tie ended up. China’s head coach Li Yongbo revealed, “In preparing for this tie, we considered all possibilities and this result was one of them. Of course we had hoped for Lin Dan to win the first match and the tie would have been 3-0.

“I’m certain that after the below-par performances today by Lin Dan and the second doubles pair, they will definitely bounce back to produce one of their finest showings in the final on Sunday. This is how athletes are.”