Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen completely owned the crowd on Saturday at the 2011 French Open Super Series, getting treatment no one ever had before. For the second week in a row, the Danish wonders defeated world number ones Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei in a tremendous three-game battle. Lee Chong Wei finally stopped Chen Long’s run after two wins over the world number one and the Malaysian star will get a repeat of the All England 2010 final, where he played Kenichi Tago.
By Tarek Hafi, live in Paris. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)
The match of the week without any doubt. Recent Denmark Premier Super Series winners Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen, for the fourth time, sent World Champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei packing in a majestic battle.
Once again, both pairs played a mental and physical game in their fourth meeting, not a single one of which has finished in under an hour of play. Despite having match points against them, the Danish pair wouldn’t give up after the whole stadium stood up to cheer for their new heroes.
“There were many spectators today. We wanted to give them a good match. We were so tired but fighting hard, we really got the spirit from the crowd because we simply had no energy left,” commented a very tired-looking Fischer Nielsen who couldn’t seem to believe he won today.
“We won our match today only with the help of the people of France,”added the tall Dane.
With a probable win tomorrow, the best Danish pair is poised with a good chance of reaching the number one spot of the world ranking.
“We are now at the top our game, but it’s so nice to win and we wanted to win because they were all cheering for us so loudly.” On their fourth encounter and fourth win over the Chinese pair, Fischer Nielsen said, “Yes four matches always in three games 22-20 thrice and once 21-19: it’s crazy I think we have some luck as well,”
Fischer Nielsen and Pedersen now will get to play the same final as their Danish final, against Xu Chen and Ma Jin. “We just need a long rest and then we will try to win for the French crowd tomorrow.”
Lee Chong Wei was able to get his confidence back after beating his recent nemesis, China’s Chen Long. After two shocking losses to the new Chinese ace, Lee Chong Wei made sure he would get his revenge and prove to all he is still sitting carefully on his world number one seat. Yet, Chen Long showed he is reaching the absolute top echelon, step by step. He kept the Malaysian scared once again for the duration of the match, but in the end, he couldn’t cope with Lee Chong Wei’s eagerness to win.
“I am happy I won today. I lost against him but it’s okay. I’m fine with it,” said Lee. The top star, looking tired after getting his first tough match since he entered the tournament, and having one of the few matches he has played to three games since he reached his world number one position.
“It’s good I’m in the final. Now I need to rest.”
The Malaysian is now getting another expected tough match against Kenichi Tago of Japan, a re-match of his All England 2010 final run. The Japanese now looks all fired up to make up for his up and down results this past year.
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