Chinese badminton player Lin Dan. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese badminton player Lin Dan came from behind to defeat Sho Sasaki of Japan, 20-22, 21-6, 21-8, in the second round of the 2016 All England Open Badminton Championships held at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England on March 10th, Thursday.
With his win, the current world no. 4 and tournament fifth seed will advance in the quarterfinals of the said competitions to face world no. 5 and tournament third seed Jan Østergaard Jørgensen, who demolished world no. 18 Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong, 21-13, 21-16, in just 35 minutes in the second round.
"I made some mistakes in the first set. But I then played more consistently and gave him no chance," said the two-time Olympics gold medal winner, as reported by Shanghai Daily.
"Jorgensen is a top player in the world. I look forward to the clash with him," he added.
Lin, who at 32 years of age had already won the men's badminton singles gold medals in both the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, has not been favored to advance this far in the said tournament especially after his long-time rival, current world no. 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, was eliminated in the first round by qualifier Sai Praneeth Bhamidipati of India.
"There are more and more challenges and to me it's just about training and getting the best out of myself. I'm pretty clear on the current circumstances and because everyone's fighting I'm just trying to perfect my own game," Lin said when asked how he compares his game right now to that of his game during his Olympic years, as per Yahoo Sports.
He refused to comment about his arch-nemesis Lee's early exit, though, saying that "I don't know why everyone keeps asking me about that."
Lin had actually shown "remarkable speed" for a 32-year-old against the 33-year-old Sasaki, the report noted.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old Jørgensen is said to be in top shape and is expected to give Lin a hard fight in the final eight.
Lin defeated world no. 23 Lee Dong-keun of South Korea, 21-17, 21-17, in the opening round of the tournament.
