Lin Dan spearheaded the Chinese domination of the 2009 World Championships as all-Chinese finals will be on the cards in three out of the five disciplines at Hyderabad.

By Gaurav Gupta and Jan Lin, Badzine Correspondents live in Hyderabad.  Photos: BadmintonPhoto (live)

Lin Dan (pictured left) is well on his way to rewriting record books to be the first player to win 3 world championships back-to-back.  His undisputed reign as World Champion appeared to be momentarily in trouble against Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who managed to drag Lin Dan into a tough 3-game dogfight.

After steering in cruise control mode to take the first game 21-14, the reigning Olympic and World Champion hit a roadblock after leading 5-4 in the second.

In a rare sight, Lin's dominance stuttered as the Indonesian managed to string together a series a continuous points for the rest of the second game, winning 21-13 pushing the match into a rubber game.

Normalcy was quickly restored in the final game as Lin Dan never looked back after opening an 8-5 lead in the tiebreaker with many long rallies that were clearly wearing Sony out as the Indonesian was forced to play catch-up.  Lin wrapped up the match, winning 21-15 and quelling the erxtraordinary spirited challenge by the Indonesian, who deserved to be commended for keeping Lin on court for over an hour.

"Sony has evolved into a very mature player and that was why this match was difficult," revealed Lin Dan after the match. "Just like in his game against Chong Wei, Sony's game today was so mature that it limited my options and I had to maintain a high level of patience.  On top of that, I'm not in my best form today.  Even within a Championship, a player's form can fluctuate from day to day."

The 2008 All England Champion and Lin Dan’s old time nemesis Chen Jin also secured his place in the finals on Sunday. He was more dominant in his performance over Taufik Hidayat (pictured right), who was no match for the pace and mobility of Chen.  The match failed to live up to any high points as Chen Jin outclassed the Indonesian 21-16, 21-6.

"It was okay. I was just physically not there today," said Taufik light-heartedly despite the loss. "I've stopped setting goals and targets, I just want to enjoy every game that I play. So overall I'm still happy with my performance here."

"I attribute the win to the employment of the right strategy," said the 23-year-old Chen Jin, "I was able to keep him away from the net.  Taufik played okay, he was just much slower and couldn't find his usual rhythm.  I enjoyed the match throughout.  The crowd cheering helped.  They understood badminton.

"I will just continue to give my best performance for the final because in an all-Chinese final, I don't think it matters too much whoever wins the title because it has already proven that China's domination in the men's singles event," remarked Chen Jin.

Lin Dan shared the same sentiments, he said, "China has already secured the gold medal in this event.  That's what is most important.  After the Olympic Games, I arrived at the revelation one has to be able to lose as graciously as he wants to win, and of course I do cherish every opportunity to win a title."

Chinese ladies complete hat trick as Xie Xingfang takes on Lu Lan in women's singles final

Two-time World Champion Xie Xingfang proved to be too strong for Pi Hongyan of France, the only non-Chinese player in the women's singles final four.

By far the stronger of the two players on court, Xie raced to a 11-5 lead in the first game, denying the late charge of the Frenchwomen to close it 21-18.  It was all one-way traffic in the second as Pi ran out of ideas and steam before going down 21-8 in the second.

Xie had expressed earlier in the Championship that this might be her swan song World Championships claiming that it is "highly unlikely" that she will be playing in the 2010 edition.

China's chief coach, Li Yongbo, responded to her statement today saying, "I hope Xie Xingfang will reconsider her retirement plans as I feel that based on Xie's performance these two days and comparing to where Zhang Ning was at Xie's age, there was not much difference."

"I'm prepared to make special arrangements for Xie Xingfang if need be, such as flexibility in her training routine and timings so that she can pursue other things at the same time but  still remain in the team as she is still an integral member of the China team and there are still years in her," continued Li.

Xie's junior Lu Lan (pictured left), on the other hand, has never fully realized her potential on the world stage with her last major title dating back to the 2007 Denmark Super Series. Standing in her way on course to rectifying this blip in her player profile was compatriot Wang Lin.

A closely fought opener went Lu’s way 21-18 after a deadlock at 18-18. The #2 seed Wang Lin came back from being down 10-5 in the second to lead 19-17 but it was a little too late as the Lu Lan held her composre to score four consecutive points to win the set and the match 21-19.

"Both games were neck-and-neck but the difference for me was I could remain very calm despite the tight scoreline," revealed Lu Lan.  After defeating Tine Rasmussen, Lu had shared that she has mastered the art of emptying her mind in tense situations as she has identified that in the past, she has always been weighed down by too many ideas running in her head whenever the game's intensity increases.

Malaysian golden duos delight the crowd in spite of narrow defeats

The “Fuzzy Logic” of Mohd Zakry & Mohd Tazari (pictured right), the exuberant Malay duo - popularly known as the Fuzzy Pair in badminton circles - seemed to flummox the Chinese team of Cai Yun & Fu Haifeng, who were put under immense pressure by the Malaysians in their semi-final meeting.

After having lost the first game 18-21, the Chinese had to dig deep as they were held to level pegging at 22-22 in the second to square things up with a 24-22 win.

The pattern of fast exchanges continued into the early part of the third game as well, till a close line call at 7-7 upset the Malaysians' rhythm.

Failing to recover from the disappointment of losing the point, the Malaysians lost momentum as Cai & Fu started to pull ahead going into the change of ends interval leading 11-7. The Chinese had got the opening they were on the lookout for as they pounced on the lead and closed out the match 21-15 in the tiebreaker.

"I think all of us were very eager to win it.  The Malaysians got away with it in the first while we got away with it in the second," said Fu Haifeng. "Both pairs were in fact very tense in the third game but I suppose we held on better than they did."

The other Malaysian pair of Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong was just as engrossed in another epic battle this time against their Korean counterparts Lee Yong Dae & Jae Jung Sung in the other men's doubles semi-final that had the crowd glued to the edge of their seats.

The Korean pair had to pass through a litmus test as they were stretched to their limits by Koo/Tan in a thrilling tiebreaker.  Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung came back from a one game deficit to take the match 16-21, 21-14, 22-20 in three hard fought games.

Danish Delight

The odds were against the seasoned Danish pair of Thomas Laybourn & Kamilla Rytter Juhl, but they were participants in a long battle and created the upset of the day when they disposed of the reigning Olympic champions & top seeds Lee Hyo Jung & Lee Yong Dae of Korea.

A 13-7 lead was chased down to 19-16 before the Danes lost 18-21 in the first. But in the second, Korea's Lee Yong Dae appearing rusty and out of his element as he played an error-prone match, which was immediately capitalized on by the Danish team as reflected by the 21-9 score line in favor of the Danes.

By the tiebreaker, the Koreans were apparently more consistent with their errors rather than being effective in their retrieves, and they paid the price as Juhl and Laybourn (pictured left) won the match with a 21-18 score line in the third.

"Its difficult for me not to cry," remarked Juhl.  "We didn't expect it, it was just important for us to stay on the attack.  When we saw the draws before the Championship, we already knew it would be really tough."

"We were very calm today and moved around very well," Laybourn chipped in. "We could play at the front and not just attack all the time.. We could just enjoy today as they were expected to win the Worlds."

The defending World Champions Nova Widianto & Lilyana Natsir prevented an all-Danish affair and ensured Indonesian participation in the grand finale, as they staved off the brave effort of Joachim Fischer Nielsen & Christinna Pedersen of Denmark 21-18, 14-21, 21-18 in yet another three closely contested games.

Veterans Battle against the Young Guns in all Chinese women's doubles final

With the gold medal already in China's pocket as 4 Chinese women's took the semi-final stage for the women's doubles, an upset was still on the cards. The more experienced pairing of Zhang Yawen & Zhao Tingting ousted the more fancied Olympic champion pair of Du Jing & Yu Yang in a 68-minute marathon 24-22, 18-21 and 21-8. 

Cheng Shu & Zhao Yunlei then made their way into the gold medal match by registering a comfortable 21-16, 21-12 win over teammates Ma Jin & Wang Xiaoli.  The India Open champs Ma & Wang - who actually came to the Worlds having won all three tournaments they'd entered this year - were no match against the highly energized Cheng & Zhao, who were dominant right throughout the entire duration of the match.

For complete semi-final results from the 2009 Yonex Sunrise BWF World Championships, please CLICK HERE

For live, local coverage from Hyderabad, follow the World Championships on Badzine India

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