Top 5 men’s singles contenders for the China Masters GPG

2. Lin Dan

There is every sign that badminton legend Lin Dan might be able to claim a hat-trick of Olympic gold medals in men’s singles this summer at Rio. He surged to his sixth All England title in March and set an early marker for the coveted yellow metal.

But there are still a few inconsistencies in his game that saw him fall before the semis at the Superseries events in India and Malaysia while at Singapore he lost a close three-setter semi-final.

Perhaps all ‘Super Dan’ needs is a few more wins to get that edge over others at the crucial moments. The China Masters is one of his happy hunting grounds where he has already claimed the men’s singles title five times. He will definitely look to add more to that incredible tally.

The second seed cruised to the second round on Tuesday with a straight-game win over Brunei’s Jaspar Woon Chai Yu and has Taipei’s Cheng Po Wei up next.