Lin Dan Beats Chen Long to Win China Masters amid a Near-Chinese Sweep at Changzhou

With the third Olympic gold firmly fixated in his psyche, Lin Dan showed his class and experience in the title game against world no.1 Chen Long. Having won the first game, Lin Dan lost the momentum somewhat and allowed plenty of leeway to Chen Long, who came close to forcing a decider. But the Super Dan found his game, when it mattered most and finished the match with an exceptional comeback. Women’s singles final was also taken by China as Li Xuerui, who defeated compatriot Sun Yu in three hard-fought games. Interestingly, four out of five finals on Sunday were all-China affairs and the only non-Chinese category was the men’s doubles, where two Korean pairs vied for supremacy with world no.1 Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong finally taking the title. China took women’s doubles and mixed doubles as well to make it an almost complete sweep at the 2016 Bonny China Masters tournament.

The men’s singles final of the 2016 Bonny China Masters featured world no.1 Chen Long and double Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan and world no.3 Lin Dan. The first game began with the lead changing from one player to another until the score reached 8-8. After that, Lin Dan led all the way to finish the game at 21-17. In the second game however, Chen Long bounced back even as Lin Dan’s hold on the game got a little slack. This allowed Chen Long to race to a 16-11 lead. It was here that the determined Super Dan engineered a comeback by fighting back. Although, Chen Long won a couple of more points, the scores were tied at 18-18. The two accomplished Chinese fought and fought and reached a score of 21-21. While a composed Lin Dan ensured to keep the shuttle in play, an erroneous shot from Chen Long fell out and it was all over. Lin Dan won at 21-17, 23-21 to make it the sixth time that he has taken the China Masters title.

In women’s singles, top seed Li Xuerui took three games and sixty-three minutes before defeating compatriot Sun Yu. It was the second successive final that Yu had lost after her defeat by Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon last week in the OUE Singapore Super-series tournament. After the first six points in the first game, when Yu put up some resistance, Li opened the lead and never looked back before pocketing the game. In the second game, it was Yu, who reeled off 5 consecutive points after trailing at 13-16. Li tried to make a comeback but Yu carried the momentum to win the game and force the decider. The third game saw Li dominating from the start. The top seed opened a 8-0 lead and raced to 17-2 in no time. Yu couldn’t produce the same fight she had in the second game as Li finished the match at 21-16, 19-21, 21-6 to win the women’s singles title.

The mixed doubles title was won by the Chinese top seeds Xu Chen/Ma Jin, who faced literally no resistance from their compatriots Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen in their 35-minute 21-17, 21-15 victory. However the women’s doubles title game, also won by a Chinese pair, turned out to be a titanic battle lasting 85 minutes. The top seeded Chinese twin sisters Luo Ying/Luo Yu were given a harried time by their countrywomen Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan. The Luo twins lost the first game 16-21 but came back strongly in the second to force a decider. In the end, the hard-fought battle ended in favor of Ying/Yu at 16-21, 21-15, 21-18.

The only title that China couldn’t win in the 2016 Bonny China Masters was the men’s doubles. It was an all-Korean affair between top seeded pair of Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong and their compatriots Kim Gi Jung/Kim Sa Rang. The world’s no.1 men’s pair didn’t face much problem in their 21-17, 21-14 win achieved in 41 minutes.