Lee
Lee Chong Wei, now 37, & Lin Dan, 36, played 40 times in total, with the Chinese player convincingly winning their head-to-head 28-12
Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan | Courtesy: Twitter
Agencies
Fifteen years ago in a packed Kuala Lumpur stadium, rising stars Lin Dan & Lee Chong Wei met in a final for the first time, setting the stage for what would become badminton"s greachạy thử rivalry. (More Badminton News)
Malaysia"s Lee, then 22, fell to lớn the floor, punched the air & blew kisses to lớn the crowd after his see-sawing, 88-minute 17-15, 9-15, 15-9 victory, when he fought baông chồng from behind in the first and last games.
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"Everyone saw how (Lin) played," said Lee, who was the defending champion, after his win at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium.
"He is excellent in attack & his overhead smashes & forehand crosscourt shots are dangerous. So it is very satisfying khổng lồ beat him."
It was a fittingly tense start for a match-up that would span two Olympic finals & two world championship deciders, và drew a new generation of fans.
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But the match would remain one of the high points for Lee, who lost his four world and Olympic finals against the Chinese great và retired last year without winning either of the sport"s top two titles.
"Their rivalry happened in a period when badminton needed inspiration," K.M. Boopathy, a veteran Malaysian sports journadanh sách who watched the 2005 game, told AFPhường.
"They managed lớn make the sport extremely popular."
Bad boy vs nice guy
Lee, now 37, & Lin, 36, played 40 times in total, with the Chinese player convincingly winning their head-to-head 28-12. Lee had lost his first và only encounter against Lin before beating hlặng in the Kuala Lumpur final.
The 2008 & 2012 Olympic title matches were aao ước the most memorable showdowns between the men, who both enjoyed long spells as world number one.
Lin won in straight games in Beijing in 2008, but Lee came agonisingly cthua kém to lớn gold at London 2012, leading 19-18 in the deciding game before fatefully leaving a shot that dropped on the line.
Bracketing the 2012 defeat, Lee lost world title matches lớn Lin in 2011 & then in 2013 in southern China, when the air conditioning mysteriously failed mid-match và the Malaysian was stretchered off with cramp as he faced match point.
Fiery Lin and soft-spoken Lee are very different characters, although they were friends off the court và tóm tắt a strong mutual respect.
Known as "Super Dan", Lin had a reputation as badminton"s bad boy -- he sported multiple tattoos, unusually for a Chinese player, và strutted around the court with supreme confidence.
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The two-time Olympic & five-time world champion, often regarded as the best badminton player ever, often ran inkhổng lồ controversy. In 2008, he threw a temper tantrum during a training session after which he had lớn deny striking his coach.
In contrast, Lee was quiet & unassuming. But his humble demeanour belied a dazzling array of weapons on the court -- he was blessed with lightning reflexes and once held the record for the world"s fasthử nghiệm smash.
His 19-year career also had its fair cốt truyện of drama, however.
The then world number one was banned after testing positive for a proscribed anti-inflammatory at the 2014 world championships, & was sidelined for eight months until authorities eventually accepted his explanation he took it inadvertently.
"We have sầu to salute him"
Lee launched a comebaông xã & defeated Lin in a thrilling semi-final at the năm nhâm thìn Rio Olympics -- only lớn thảm bại once again in the final, this time to lớn another Chinese player, Chen Long.
The sinewy star longed for a final shot at Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games, now postponed due to lớn the coronavirus, but his hopes were dashed after being diagnosed with nose cancer in 2018.
He recovered after treatment but struggled to lớn regain his khung, & announced his retirement last year at a tearful press conference.
With 705 wins và 69 titles, Lee is a national anh hùng in Malaysia, which has produced few world-class athletes.
The pair"s final match was the quarter-finals of the prestigious All-England xuất hiện in March 2018, which the Chinese won.
But Lin has not hit his former heights in recent years, & with retirement looming he looked certain lớn miss the Tokyo Olympics before they were postponed to lớn next year.
When Lee announced his retirement, Lin posted on China"s Twitter-lượt thích Weibo: "I will be alone on the (badminton) court và no one will accompany me." And only last month, Lee described his nemesis, who is still playing, as a "legend".
