Lin Dan wins BWF World Championships 2013

Lin Dan in action during the final of the World Badminton Championships

In a gruesome fight over the gold medal, Lee Chong Wei retired after playing 93 minutes of high intensity badminton, letting Lin Dan walk away with the gold. Lee Chong Wei retired while trailing 21-16, 13-21 and 17-20.

Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan have played each other in the final of a tournament on numerous occasions. And it was the second time when Lee Chong Wei had to retire, first time being last year in All England Final.

Match started on a very competitive note as anticipated. Lee Chong Wei took the opening point. Lin Dan came back strongly taking 3 straight points making it 4-2. Lee Chong Wei decided to up the ante and took next 4 points to go up 7-4 from 3-6 down. At 10-10 Lin Dan smashed to go into break with an advantage. 21 points had been played in 14 minutes.

Upon return, fierce fight continued, both players testing each other taking alternate points. Score read 13-all at this point in time. Here Lee Chong Wei once again raced ahead with 4 consecutive points, leading 16-13. Lin Dan finally broke LCW’s serve and run of points to make it 14-16.

Lee Chong Wei, however, was in no mood to stop. He broke Lin Dan and again fired three straight points to make it 19-14. Soon it was 20-16 and Lee Chong Wei had 4 game points. He didn’t need them all though. He converted it at the first asking. LCW won 21 of 37 points in 28 minutes, scoring in bulk with 2 runs of 4 points 3 points each.

In the second game, Lin Dan changed the tact. He started to make Chong Wei move and out-maneuver rather than outpace him. He opened scoring with a net winner and placed one at the back to make it 2-0. First smash of this game came in the 5^th point when Lin Dan hit a winner. Score went up to 5-0. Lin Dan looked unstoppable; he was almost toying with Lee Chong Wei. At one point the score read 12-1.

Finally, Lee Chong Wei managed to stop the Lin Dan train. He was now serving at 4-12. Some point exchanges happened with Lee Chong Wei playing the catch-up game but he was long behind. But Lin Dan had already taken an assailable lead. Best Lee Chong Wei could do was at 19-13, but once the serve was gone to Lin Dan, he took no time to win the second game 21-13.

Match 16-21, 21-13. Game duration: 24 minutes.

In the third game, Lee Chong Wei once again started in a fiery style. He took a lead of 6-2 with some magnificent strokes.

One hour into the match, both players were still testing each other with the same intensity they started off with. Here the fight became really fierce. Both players were playing neck-to-neck, as if they were playing for pride. Lee Chong Wei easily maintained his lead till 10-6.

It’s at this point, the long rallies started. Lin Dan is not someone to let anyone walk away easily. Lin Dan made a spectacular comeback and went into the break leading at 11-10.

After the break, Lin Dan seemed to be cruising winning four straight points, making it 15-11. That’s when Lee Chong Wei staged a comeback yet again scoring three points in succession, closing the gap to just a single point, but still trailing at 14-15.

However, he was struggling. Here Lin clearly seemed to be smelling victory? He was serving at 19-15 and it looked he will wrap up the match. But Lee Chong Wei gave it a good fight and made it 17-19.

However, when Lin Dan earned the match pint, Lee Chong Wei decided it was enough. He retires trailing 17-20 in the decider, conceding the gold to Lin Dan.