World No. 1 Lin Dan, nicknamed "Super Dan", scored a three-game victory over Pakkawat Vilailak of Thailand as the opening round of the badminton SCG Thailand Grand Prix Gold 2008 got underway on June 25.
With many of badminton's big guns, like freshly crowned Singapore Open winner and world No.2 Lee Chong Wei, world No.3 Chen Jin and No.4 Bao Chunlai skipping the tournament, Lin is the only world top–ten ranked player competing in the men's singles competition.
His clash with the Thai qualifier was all the more intriguing because Vilailak was unseeded - but it didn't turn out to be an easy match.
Lin started well, taking the first game 21-14. However Vilailak fought back, scoring eight points in a row at the start of the second game to lead 9-1 and eventually took the second game 21-17, with a potential upset looking possible.
The atmosphere at the start of the third game was understandably tense -- would Lin crash out as he did in the opening round of the Athens Olympics in 2004? However he answered the question emphatically -- winning the final game 21-14 to record a hard-fought victory.
The other seeded players largely fared well. The only minor upsets were sixth seed, Lee Tsuen Seng of Malaysia losing to Yun Hu of Hong Kong 21-15, 21-15, and sixteenth seed, Petr Koukal from the Czech Republic, crashing out to Tommy Suguarto of Indonesia, 21-18, 21-16.
(BOCOG June 26, 2008)