The finals of Li-Ning Singapore open, opened with a furious bang.
The mixed doubles pair of Liliyana Natsir and Ahmand Tantowi Of Indonesia set the pace of attacking play overcoming a service-error prone Cheng Wen-hsing and her partner Chen Hung-Ling of Chinese Taipei.
The Women's singles was pretty solid, pitting the veteran Dane, Tine Baun vs. her nemesis, Wang Xin. Wang Xin prevail over a hard-fought match winning, 21-19, 21-17 in slightly more than 30 minutes. Arguably the best match of the day.
The real let down was the men's singles. World top player Lin Dan of China conceded a walkover to fellow country-man Chen Jin. Lin Dan personally made his way to the court to make an announcement. But the crowd in the Indoor stadium was not pleased, some folks in the stadium were trash-talking. I was furious too (I paid for the season ticket) that Lin Dan decided not to play, citing stomach flu. At least, Lin Dan should show more class by performing some exhibition shots like playing casually and lose to Chen Jin.
The trend of Chinese (China) player conspiring to give a let to another Chinese (China) is a bit suspicious given its frequency. Anyway, Lin Dan let Li-Ning down, who cheated me of watching him play in the finals...I pity foreign fans/tourist who flew to Singapore and paid for the ticket just to watch Lin Dan. Singapore Open 2011, would be unfairly associated with Lin Dan's infamy.
The Women's doubles was between China and Korea. Oh surprise! China pull out all the stops 110% to beat another nation's team. National pride, no?!
Similarly, in men's doubles, Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun showed no mercy to Indonesians.
Nationalism at its worst in sports...
I believed if national team-ism or nationalism is taken out of Badminton, national conflict of interest would be taken out of the game and individual talents will vied to be the top regardless of country of representation.
Hopefully, the BWF look into this more seriously.
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