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Day 6 at Tianhe Indoor Gymnasium will be very exciting. The draw by now is clear in both men’s and women’s singles events for the semi-final stage. The tournament so far produced some very expected and unexpected results. Let’s look at how the day 6 is planned.
In first semifinal match tomorrow, no 1 seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia will take on 3rd seen Pengyu Du of China on court 1. Lee Chong Wei defeated Scott Evans of Ireland in round 1 (21-14, 21-15), Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia in round 2 (14-21, 21-18, 21-11), 14th seeded Zhengming Wang of China in round 3 (21-12, 21-7), and 8th seeded Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in quarters (21-6, 21-9).
His campaign has gone according to the script. But he has dropped one game so far, and thus looks not as formidable as some other players here. Good news for Lee Chong Wei, however, is that his opponent in semi-final Pengyu Du of China has also been struggling. All his matches have stretched to three games so far.
In previous three rounds he won the first game, dropped the second and won the third to win the match, except his quarterfinal match against Parupalli Kashyap of India, where Kashyap took the first game against him convincingly and he nearly lost the match narrowly, winning the second game 22-20. He looks shaky but this also means that Lee Chong Wei needs to be mentally prepared for a three-setter.
The second semi will see the nearly invincible Lin Dan take on 7th seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam. Since getting married last year, Lin Dan has nearly been out of the circuit spending quality time with his family, which caused his world ranking to fall below 200 and was only allowed to play on a wild card.
Lin Dan despite being unseeded here has played like a champ that he really is, not dropping a single game in the four matches he has played here. In the first round he defeated unseeded Sattawat Pongnairat of USA in straight games (21-6, 21-9). In second round, he overcame Eric Pang of Netherlands (21-14, 21-17). In third round he overcame 15th seeded Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia in straight games again (22-20, 21-10).
There was nothing surprising about the results of these matches. Lin Dan was expected to win all the way. But the surprise came in the quarters where he demolished compatriot Long Chen with equal ease and finesse.
Long Chen is a very attacking player, has beaten all top players and can defeat anyone in world badminton any day. But when he plays against someone like Lin Dan, even he looks ordinary. Such is the way Lin Dan plays. Truth be told, every single time I have seen Lin Dan play, I have felt he is something special.
It seems he is only playing 60-70 percent of his game against normal players. Only against likes of Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat, Peter Gade have I seen him unleash his full potential. There are two things that set him apart from the rest of the players. He is everywhere on the court 100% of the time. It is very hard to out-manoeuvre him.
Also, I have seen him hitting smash winners from most unlikely situations in a rally. No wonder, he is yet to drop a game, his world ranking notwithstanding.
PV Sindhu
Women’s singles is unlikely to go without much of incidents. 13th seed Yeon Ju Bae of Korea has displayed a trace of brilliance sending three strong opponents packing so far. In round three, she defeated Sayaka Takahashi who had defeated her compatriot eighth seed Mitani Minatsu in round two.
And her convincing win against a struggling Saina Nehwal of India who was third seeded and almost certain to make to semis only confirms that her win against Mitani Minatsu wasn’t out of luck. While I’ll hold my horses and predict an upset at the expense of Li Xuerui, I will certainly claim if that does happen, probably we will know who will take the championship final.
The other half of the women’s singles has been eventful. Whereas Ratchanok Intanon’s quarter has gone to script pushing Ratchanok Intanon into semis, there is something worth noting. Ratchanok Intanon was stretched to three full games against Carolina Marin of Spain who had won games against likes of Ji Hyun Sung of Korea. That is both a good news and bad news for her semi-final opponent P. V. Sindhu of India.
The other quarter of this half has been most eventful. The world has seen a teenager from Pulella Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, India beating some of the biggest names in world women’s badminton. In two consecutive days, she sent two former world no. 1s home, her first victim being second seed Wang Yihan, who has been in terrific form this year, winning many major titles besides helping China take the Uber Cup back from the Koreans.
Her second victim was former world no. 1 Wang Shixian. What is more important about these wins is that these wins are against major Chinese players and on the Chinese shores in front of a partisan crowd. These wins are a true certificate of nerve and merit.
The match between P. V. Sindhu and Ratchanok Intanon, two teenagers almost the same age born within five months of each other, would be one of the most interesting matches of this tournament.
Ratchanok Intanon has achieved a lot more in her career so far. She has been without a doubt been the biggest talent in recent years (after Saina Nehwal), who is tipped to have the calibre to beat the top Chinese players.
This match will, in a way, determine whether P. V. Sindhu will firmly become a part of the gang being considered a threat to the Chinese players or her performance will just remain one bright chapter of her career.
We will come to know by 10 a.m. GMT August 10, 2013. Till then, fingers crossed.
