Odense: Badminton superstar Lin Dan survived a scare on Wednesday as he opened his bid for the Denmark Open title.
Lin Dan held an early lead 7-2 in the first set of his opening match against Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, and cruised to 11-8 lead at the interval. He was a little “too laid-back” after the interval to allow Chou to break back and levelled the score at 16-16. Chou then managed to save three game points and force deuce before Lin Dan won the first set with 22-20.
In the second set, Lin Dan appeared to be running out of steam after 9-9, Chou seized the opportunity by accelerating his pace of attacks and went on to win the second set 21-10.
In the decider, the two time Olympics gold medalists opened up a quick 7-3, 12-5, 19-13 lead before Chou found his rhythm and fought back closing in on Lin Dan at 17-19. Lin Dan kept his nerves and finished Chou off 21-18.
Lin will face third seed Jan Jorgensen of Denmark in the second round. Jorgensen defeated Marc Zwiebler of Germany 21-11 21-16 in the first round, he is also the only shuttler that has defeated Lin Dan so far this year.
Meanwhile, several seeded players were knocked out of the tournament on Wednesday, in men’s singles, the under-performed men’s singles fifth seed Tommy Sugiarto lost to Tian Houwei of China 14-21,14-21; unseeded Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia upset sixth seed Wang Zhengming of China 17-21 21-18 21-19; and eighth seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark lost to unseeded player Brice Leverdez of France 22-24, 21-16, 18-21.
In women’s singles, sixth seed Bae Yeon Ju lost to Busanan Ongbumrungpan of Thailand 14-21, 15-21.
