Peter defeats Lin Dan in Basel

Copyright: BadmintonPhoto.com Peter defeats Lin Dan in Basel 23.03.2010 It lasted more than four years. But now Peter was able to beat his long time opponent Lin Dan - the dominating mens singles player in the last couple of years. Peter, the 5th seed continued his outstanding form that seen him reach the All England Semi Final in Birmingham last week (beating Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in three excellent games). Gade came through his match 21-17, 21-16 to book his place in the semi final at the Wilson Swiss Open in Basel. Before he sends Lin Dan out of the tournament he beat Sho Sasaki (Japan) and Sung Hwan Park (Korea) in two straight games. "I’m so happy that I finally managed to beat Lin Dan again ! It’s been four years since the last time and today I got it again. I played really well all the way through – such a good feeling. The score seems to be a plain sailing. But of course it was more close than the numbers say. Lin Dan got better and better through out the second set, but I managed to finish off the set which was very important. In the second it was very close all the way but in the end I managed to step up a gear , while at the same time playing with a lot of patience and variation. That was the key today and it worked. I’m really happy for this win and such a nice feeling when the hard works pays off." In the semi finals Peter lost to Chen Long of China."I tried to continue the way I played yesterday against Lin Dan. I was able to do that most of the first game and leading 18-12 I was in control. But Chen Long got back into the game, he was lucky yes... but he also played some great rallies and got the very, very important first set, and by that also a lot momentum. I got behind in the second but in the end he became more and more tired but too late – I couldn’t catch up anymore. Of course I’m dissappointed because I had a good chance of winning the match and if I would have won the first game I would have won the match..But C. Long played really well and is a very good fighter..Right now I’m tired after two weeks pretty hard wirk with lots of tough, big matches. I could have come out even better. had very tough draws in both All England and Swiss Open and still I had some very good wins and I believe there will be more wins coming during the year if I continue down this path", Peter explains.