Badminton Day 9: Lin Dan loses, Carolina Marin wins women’s singles gold

Men’s singles semifinal

Chen Long, the world’s second ranked player, defeated Viktor Axelsen 2-0 in impressive fashion on Friday morning, booking a spot in the gold medal match against Malaysisia’s Lee Chong Wei. While Viktor Axelsen is certainly a fantastic player, his relative inexperience and youthfulness showed through on the day. Chen set himself up constantly throughout both games by making Axelsen come near the net, then away from the net on a consistent basis. This was about as convincing a performance from Long as one could expect. The final between Long and Lee will certainly be quite a spectacle.

Due to Li Xuerui injuring her knee in her semifinal vs.Spain’s Carolina Marin, Li forfeited the match. Okuhara will take home the bronze medal.

After losing the first game, the world’s top ranked player rallied to win two games in a row, winning the women’s singles gold medal in style. Sindhu got out to an early advantage in the first game but Marin battled back, ultimately falling short, however, 21-19. As do most great players, when adversity strikes, they tend to rise to the occasion. And that’s exactly what Marin did in the second game. Putting on incredible showings of agility and skill, she comfortably dispatched of Sindhu, 21-12. In the third game, once again, Marin was at her best. The Spaniard attempted low shots over the net in an attempt to tire Sindhu out. Sindhu, contrastingly, attempted to play higher shots in an effort to wear out Marin. In the end, Marin’s technical ability won over Sindhu’s work rate and that allowed her to string together numerous points in game three. Marin won the game 21-15, the match 2-1, and the coveted gold medal. The young Sindhu walks away with the silver medal after an outstanding performance throughout the tournament.