Beijing: Although Lin Dan’s Guangzhou HeYuan team only won 2 out of 13th ties in the 2016/2017 China Badminton Super League (CBSL), but the Guangzhou team has barely collected enough points to avoid relegation.
With both Guangzhou and Liaoning teams in the bottom half of the CBSL ranking table, they were worried about potential relegation going into Thursday’s tie. Nevertheless, Lin Dan picked up where his teammates left off to guide his team to a 4-1 victory.
In the opening match of the tie, Liaoning’s Li Junhui/Wang Zekang had to dig deep to get the better of Guangzhou’s Zhuge Lukai/Zhou Haodong by winning the men’s doubles match 21-19, 21-18 to open Liaoning’s lead to 1-0.
The second match though was a one-sided affair when Guangzhou’s Li Yun needed only 24 minutes to fight past Liaoning’s Qu Ran to level the score at 1-1.
Guangzhou then grabbed the lead in the women’s doubles match as Wu Ying Shi/Fu Xue outperformed Liaoning’s An Yu/Zheng Yuwen 21-13, 21-17 to give Guangzhou a 2-1 advantage.
The two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan then capitalized on his experience to pocket the men’s singles match against Zhang Weiyi 21-13, 21-13 to seal the tie for Guangzhou with 3-1.
In the inconsequential last match, Shin Baek-Cheol/Zhong Qianxin of Guangzhou seized the momentum to overcome Liaoning’s Li Junhui/An Yu 21-13, 21-15 to hand Liaoning their 13th consecutive losses.
Meanwhile, Chen Long’s Qingdao team, together with Zhejiang, Guangdong New Century, and Xiamen team have all qualified for the CBSL semi-finals.
