Son Wan-ho defeats China’s badminton star Lin Dan in Korea Open

In the Japan Open Super Series last week, Korea’s Son Wan-ho, 27, had a great opportunity to defeat China’s Lin Dan (pictured), the 32-year-old badminton star in the world, for the first time. Son won the first set and had match point at 20-18 in the second game. If Son had earned just one more point, he could have ended the game. But Son lost to Lin Dan who came from behind.

After the heart-breaking defeat in Japan a week ago, Son surprised badminton fans by winning the return match with Lin Dan in Korea. Son, ranked 10th in the world, crushed world No. 5 Lin Dan with 2-0 (21-10, 21-15) in the round of 16 match in the men`s badminton singles of the Victor Korea Open Super Series 2015 at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium, Seoul on Sep. 17. Lin Dan, 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic gold medalist, is called as king of shuttlecock. He added two gold medals in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and even in the 2014 Incheon Asiad, which he participated at the age over 30.

This is the first victory of Son over Lin Dan after 8 consecutive defeats in the past. “I’ve recovered from a sole injury and increased intensity of training. Boosting physical strength and speed was effective. Lin Dan is good at defense so I tried to make a lot of shots to shake his confidence,” said Son.

In the women’s singles, world No. 8 Seong Ji-hyun defeated Kim Na-young with 2-0 (21-15, 21-13) and went onto the quarterfinals. Beaten by Nozomi Okuhara (Japan) with 1-2 (21-13, 8-21, 13-21), Bae Yeon-ju failed to advance to the quarterfinals.

Kim Ki-jeong and Kim Sarang in the men’s doubles, ranked 17th in the world, and Ko Seong-hyeon and Kim Hana in the mixed doubles successfully joined the quarterfinals.