Olympic champion Lin Dan and Wang Yihan helped keep China on track to become the first nation to successfully defend all five world titles when they won both singles crowns at the world badminton championships here on Sunday. Lin had a thrilling preparation for his title defence at next year’s London Games when he saved two match points to beat top-seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei 20-22, 21-14, 23-21 as Wang later overcame surprise Taiwanese finalist Cheng Shao Chieh 21-15, 21-10. Earlier Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang won the women’s doubles.
Lin held off the challenge of the Malaysian heir apparent after trailing 19-20 and 20-21 in the final game of the best contest yet between the two great men’s singles rivals. It was also Lin’s fourth world title but it would not have happened had he not unleashed a thrilling jump smash on the first match point against him and then lifted the shuttle deep enough to bring an overhead drop error from Lee on the second.
“I just didn’t think too much about the result on the match points,” said Lin afterwards.
