Super Dan aims at super 'Grand Slam'
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China Daily, December 13, 2011
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Lin Dan plays in China Open's final on December 27, 2011 in Shanghai. |
Four-time world champion Lin Dan of China will start his campaign to complete his collection of winner's medals by winning the BWF superseries Finals, to be held in Liuzhou, China, from Dec 14-18.
Lin Dan, arguably the best shuttler in the world, has won four world titles, and is also the reigning Olympic and Asian Games gold medalist as well as the winner of the Badminton Asia Championships and 15 world superseries tournaments.
However, he never participated in the three-year-old superseries Finals due to different reasons, while his arch rival Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia has won on three occasions.
This time in Liuzhou, a southern city of China, Lin qualified third for the season-ending extravaganza, which is open to the top eight singles and pairs in the rankings of superseries, but limited to only two entries per team for each of the five categories - men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles.
Lin quitted a few superseries tournaments due to injuries this season, but he seemed to find back his rhythm after he grabbed back-to-back superseries titles recently in Hong Kong Open and China Open and outclassed world No 1 Lee two consecutive times in the semi-finals.
Lin will face tough challenges en route to his super "Grand Slam" from Lee, Denmark veteran Peter Gade, Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and also his teammate Chen Long.
Lee is the only non-Chinese shuttler to top the superseries rankings, while China's four other world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng (men's doubles), Wang Yihan (women's singles), Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang (women's doubles) and Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei (mixed doubles) head the other categories.
In women's singles, China's Wang Yihan and Wang Xin take the top two spots, meaning another Chinese top shuttler Wang Shixian has no place in the Finals.
In women's doubles, China's Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli will fight for a perfect season ending. The pair was unstoppable this season, winning seven superseries titles and becoming the first shuttlers in history to win four consecutive superseries.
