Denmark Open: China recover from World C’ships blow, and how!

Denmark’s chief coach Lars Uhre, in a short presentation during a VIP brunch on his forecast for the Denmark Open finals, compared Wang Yihan to a ‘Russian babushka doll’ which would return vertical no matter how much one tilted it. He meant the Russian nevalashka, a roly-poly traditional toy.

It was an interesting and mixed analogy. Wang Yihan looks anything but roly-poly. In spirit, however, Uhre was pretty accurate. Yihan, the former world champion and Olympic silver medallist, appeared down and out in the final game against Sung Ji Hyun of Korea. With a 17-13 lead, Sung was within touching distance of a remarkable Superseries victory over the 2011 champion.

A loss would’ve meant China would not enjoy a sweep of the four finals they featured in. While that might not signify much more than minor irritation for the Chinese, it would also mean a crucial result for the rest of the world in a category that has thrown up several challengers to Chinese domination. Wang Yihan had already righted the blow to Chinese pride at the World Championships by beating the world champion Ratchanok Intanon in the semifinals, recovering from 6-13 down in the second game to close out the match.

And again in the final, just as Uhre had predicted, Wang Yihan shut the gap. From the outside, it was hard to make out exactly how she pulled it off; perhaps it was a matter of pushing the pace that much more. As it was, the pace of the match had been gruelling. Perhaps this is where the mind of a champion asserts itself: to believe in raising the stakes even when the body has been stretched beyond all limits.

Sung did herself no disservice either – for the whole match she played at a high level, matching Wang Yihan stroke for stroke. In the first game in particular, she cut apart Wang’s forehand corner with a heavy slice that left the Chinese scrambling time and time again. Wang covered up that corner in the second; and a physical, excruciating battle ensued. Deep tosses; net shots that skimmed the tape; smashes that punished a marginal reduction in length – it was badminton of the highest quality, and Wang, who seems to have so many options on the overhead strokes, took it to a third game.

There again, four points behind, Wang Yihan summoned the reserves of self-belief and courage, playing near-perfect badminton to edge through 22-20. For a while longer, the Chinese supremacy in this event will not be questioned. It will leave everybody with the question: ‘What is it the Chinese have that we don’t? Why, in the event of a winning match, do we lose?’

Does training explain it?

That question would return at the end of the men’s singles final, where Chen Long would hold his own against all the wiles and brilliance of Lee Chong Wei. To recognise the extent of his feat, we must realise how blessed Chong Wei is – he is a win machine, and has just about two or three bad days in an entire year. He makes other top-ten players look out of their league.

Chen Long, however, knows what he needs to do to beat him. He needs to be beyond human – return bullets; keep the rallies going; set up lifts for his smash. This was mind-numbing badminton, played without giving each other an extra inch than necessary; laser-guided missiles and heavy mortar fire. Chen Long survived at the end of it. China swept the four finals, leaving only the men’s doubles to Korean pair of Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong, who scripted their own remarkable tale by winning their first Superseries as a pair.

The Olympic mixed doubles champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei rebounded from a disappointing world championships by whipping current world champions Tantowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, while the scratch women’s doubles combination of Tang Jinhua/Bao Yixin proved too good for Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl. All in all, an immensely satisfying tournament for the Chinese, while the others pick their way through the rubble.