Pressure, lack of confidence and rustiness were attributed by Lee
Chong Wei in his hard fought three set win over Ville Lang in the
opening match of the men's singles competition of the Olympic Games at
the Wembley Arena tonight.
Chong Wei triumped at the end 21-8, 14-21, 21-11, but not before
spending 47 minutes on the court after having to spend 80 minutes
waiting for the match to get underway.
"I am under pressure and that is not something that I can control. It
was a poor performance and I admit that I could not play my normal game
at all," conceded Chong Wei.
"Never once did it cross my mind that I will lose this match but it
was a good workout for me and I need to iron out certain aspects of my
game."
The first set was a brewze for Chong Wei as he reeled off seven consecutive points from a 14-8 lead to finish off his opponent.
But it was in the second that his game went to tatters, from sending
his smashes out to being outclassed by the Finnish player at the net.
Lang took the lead for the first time at 3-2, and from then on it was
point for point until 7-7. But four unforced errors gave Lang a 11-7
advantage and he was gaining in confidence.
There was no looking back as Lang led 18-11 at one stage before
wrapping up the second 21-14, and the Malaysian fans in the stands were
stunned.
When the third set commenced, one could see the nervourness on the
facial expression of Chong Wei, and Lang knew his opponent was in
fragile mood.
Once again it was neck to neck until Chong Wei took the decisive
point to lead 11-10 at the break. He then conceded one point before
reeling off 10 points in a row to move into the second round where he
plauys Simon Santoso of Indonesia.
"I last played him in December in the Super Series Finals but seven
months is a long time. As I said past meetings count for nothing," said
Chong Wei.
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