Badminton Asia Championships: Lin Dan's peerless display floors Lee Chong Wei, Tai Tzu Ying marches on

Unstoppable. The title of the Denzel Washington thriller about a runaway freight train loaded with inflammable material comes to mind when one considers the credentials of China’s Lin Dan and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying for the stellar singles titles of the ongoing Badminton Asia Championships. The supremely talented and strokeful Tai has indeed been an irresistible form in the course of the last five months, bagging as many as five Super Series and Super Series Premier titles without a defeat; and is poised on the threshold of making it the round half-dozen on Sunday at the Wuhan Sports Centre Gymnasium.

Even as the Japanese No 2 seed, Akane Yamaguchi, struggled for 43 minutes to down PV Sindhu’s conqueror, He Bingjiao, at 21-15, 21-19, the top seed literally strolled through her penultimate round clash against Korean qualifier Lee Jang-mi, with a 21-8, 21-16 scoreline in three minutes over the half-hour mark. There would, thus, be no real story in Tai pocketing her sixth successive title, unless, perhaps, Yamaguchi managed to extend the world’s top female player to a decider. So well is the Taipei native playing, that it is hard to imagine the hardworking Japanese teenager upstaging the raging hot favourite for the crown. The story that leaps to the eye, and that has captured the imagination of the badminton world, is that of the living legend, Lin Dan, showing the moxie of a five-time former world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, and taking giant steps towards what could be his sixth world crown at Glasgow, this July. At the ripe old age of 33, when most former world-beaters would have settled into the comfortable domesticity of married life and fatherhood, the Chinese left-hander continues to wear on court his trademark sleeveless T-shirt that shows off his heavily tattooed playing arm, and producing impeccable shots from his rich repertoire to bamboozle his opponents. Not least amongst whom is his long-time arch-rival and good friend, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, currently ranked No 1 in the world. It appears almost a travesty of justice that, in comparison with Chong Wei’s top seeding in the tournament, Lin Dan was only ranked No 4. Particularly in view of the 21-13, 21-15 drubbing that the Chinese left-hander handed out to the Malaysian ace in their 39th career meeting on Saturday, to move further ahead to 27-12 in their head-to-head encounters.

So unexceptional was this extremely eagerly-awaited clash, that it appeared as if the Chinese legend was dealing with a rank upstart who had come through the qualifying rounds, and dared to question the hegemony of the champion. Dan came out of the starting-blocks with far greater speed than Usain Bolt generally shows, and remained well ahead throughout the first game.

There was a brief show of resistance from Chong Wei in the second, as the top seed seemed to recall the stinging defeat at Dan’s hands in the final of the recent Malaysia Open Super Series Premier. But, after parity at 8-all, the Chinese southpaw floored the gas pedal, and left his antagonist panting in his wake. It was difficult to accept that their tussle had taken up 52 minutes, so much in command of the proceedings was the home hero. The man that Super Dan will cross swords against in an all-China final, second-seeded Chen Long, was on court for six minutes less than his senior, but had his hands full while quelling the spirited challenge of his 21 year old compatriot, Shi Yuqi, ranked No.5 on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) ladder. With the 2017 All England runner-up staying obdurately on his heels throughout the opening stanza, Long eventually broke away from 19-all, to log a 21-19, 21-15 verdict. Does Chen Long – who won the world title in 2014 and 2015, and the Olympic gold medal at Rio last year, and was once referred to as ‘Little Dan’ for the similarity of his game and temperament to that of his senior – have it in him to douse the incandescent flame of the man widely considered to be the greatest badminton player of all time? It must be remembered that Dan takes into Sunday’s summit clash an 8-5 career head-to-head advantage against his compatriot, five years his junior, with their most recent meeting, during the China Masters, exactly a year ago, ending in a 21-17, 23-21 victory for the older man. Immediately before that, Long had won two successive encounters against the veteran within a month in early-2015, at the All England and Malaysia Open Super Series Premier tournaments – during the period when the 28 year old reigning world and Olympic champion was at the peak of his powers, even as Dan was suffering from mental burn-out and a certain lack of motivation.

The Lin Dan of today is a different kettle of fish from the pale shadow of his self that he looked in 2015, when he actually announced his retirement from international badminton, only to reverse his decision, saying he would play on until at least the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Today, though Rio is a distant memory, that old hunger for titles is back. Stung by his narrow reverse at Chong Wei’s hands at the semi-final stage of the Rio Games – a defeat that caused him to look almost disinterested in his bronze medal play-off match with Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, the next day – Dan has redoubled his efforts off the court and managed to re-ignite the fire in his veins. If he is marginally slower on the court than he was in his prime, he has offset that disadvantage with the rich experience of playing 14 years on the world circuit. There has been no deleterious effect of the passing of years on his court craft, uncanny positioning, temperament and the ability to produce multiple strokes with the same action. The manner in which Dan has dealt with all opposition in the past few months – barring uncharacteristic losses to Denmark’s Emil Holst at the German Open, and to compatriots Shi Yuqi in the All England semi-final and Qiao Bin in the China Masters last week – has revealed flashes of his genius to badminton lovers the world over. His comprehensive 21-12, 21-11 decimation of Yuqi in the Swiss Open final, a week after losing to him at the All England, showed how stung he had been at the reverse. This, then, should be considered the dream final, despite it being an all-China affair, and therefore, being potentially devoid of needle. Two gladiators, with seven world championship titles and three Olympic gold medals between them, vying for the right to be known as Champion of Asia. And one of them aiming to be… unstoppable.