Lin Dan: An appreciation

Lin Dan

There was a period – around 2005-2006 – when the Lin Dan and Taufik Hidayat rivalry reminded me somewhat of the Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer rivalry.

In both cases, it appeared to be a contest between sheer natural talent and physical excellence. Taufik, like Federer, was an artist. He left you with vivid images that he painted on the canvas of your mind. Lin Dan and Rafael Nadal represented another end of the spectrum of being an athlete – genius of the physical kind, the ability to destroy opponents by setting unachievable physical challenges.

Taufik has since faded away into retirement, and there is some parallel with Federer, whose career is on the downswing. Nadal continues to amaze us.

And Lin Dan?

Yes, there are some similarities with Nadal, but Lin Dan’s latest exploits make us wonder if he shouldn’t be in an altogether different category. Something surpassing physical genius or great natural talent. Like a master of the game.

What Lin Dan did a month ago defied our awareness of the possibilities of sport. One year after he won an Olympic gold, and with no tournament practice, he turned up at the World Championships in Guangzhou, on a wild card, and defended his title with the loss of only a single game in the tournament! That’s not the kind of feat one would expect even a Nadal to pull off.

And that feat itself was a precursor to another astonishing achievement. Less than a month later, at the National Games – China’s national version of the Olympics – he’d win his third straight title, the only man to do so – in a contest among products of the greatest badminton system in the world. China produces champions with unsurprising regularity. But it appears even they have only one Lin Dan.

Then he’d announce he was done for the rest of the year. No more tournaments until February 2014.

There is perhaps no precedent, no one else we can compare him with. Even exceptional players need some sort of warm-up events to big tournaments; there is a period of self-doubt, and players need to find form.

In the World Championships final, playing his legendary rival Lee Chong Wei – easily the busiest player on the circuit – Lin Dan shifted to a style of game that we all assumed was long dead. Having lost the first game, he engaged Lee in a battle of precision – long high clears in which the shuttle seemed to sniff the lines. So precise were his clears that even Lee Chong Wei, who rarely makes misjudgements at the back, judged no less than eight incorrectly at the back boundary line – and that would eventually ruin his bid for his first world title.

It was as if, confronted with a speedier, in-form opponent, Lin Dan had suddenly drawn his opponent into a trance. Lee started playing his game. With each clear, Lin was spinning the thread of a web, and Lee was getting inextricably caught in it.

Of course that wasn’t the only dimension to his victory. We saw speed, we saw destructive jump smashes, full-length dives to return high-intensity fire, and jumped interceptions that he plays like no one else. Those are his stock weapons. But he didn’t win the final with those only.

He won it because of his deeper instinct for the game, a deeper connect with it that helps him control the breath and cadence of every rally. That is why he has won five world titles and several others, besides. Muhammad Ali apparently said: “I’m not the greatest, I’m the double greatest!” Lin Dan lives those words: he hasn’t just won every major title, he’s won them several times over.

In a long interview to CCTV (and translated by badminton aficionado Jan Lin), Lin brings out aspects of his personality that was mostly unknown to us. The once-volatile prodigy spouts high philosophy. Talking of his great rival Lee Chong Wei, he says: “I hope Chong Wei realised he may have lost the match but he has already succeeded. When he was down on the court at 17-20, the whole stadium was actually chanting ‘Go Lee Chong Wei’. Not for me. I heard it loud and clear! And at that moment, I actually felt Chong Wei was very blessed and I was glad for him. Perhaps in my younger years that would upset me. I mean, he came to China, and got his entire enemy’s den cheering for him when he was down, that shows the respect he has won over. And to me, that is true success.”