Qingdao: Chinese badminton superstar Lin Dan led the host team Qingdao for their fifth consecutive victory by defeating Hunan 4-1 and remained atop the China Badminton Super League on Thursday, but not without getting a tough fight from Zhou Zeqi in the men’s singles match.
Lin Dan stepped into the court to take on Hunan’s Zhou Zeqi in fourth match, but was struggling with a lot of unforced errors to eventually lose the first set 18-21.
The recomposed Super Dan made some adjustments in second and third set, playing more aggressively to mobilize Zhou all over the court, taking the following two sets with 21-18, 21-13 to put Qingdao ahead with 3-1 in the total score.
In the first match of the tie, Qingdao’s mixed doubles pair Ma Jin and Lu Kai beat Hunan’s Chen Zhuofu and Xia Huan with 21-17 and 21-12, helping host team with a 1-0 lead.
In the second match, Li Xuerui who played for Qingdao registered an easy win against Chen Huilin with 21-4, 21-10.
However, the 2013 All England men’s doubles champions Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan couldn’t seal the tie for Qingdao when they were defeated by Chai Biao and Zhang Wen with 19-21, 19-21.
After Lin Dan clinched the winning point for Qingdao, Luo Ying and Luo Yu added another point for Qingdao in the women’s doubles event by defeating Tian Qing/Jia Yifan 2-0.
