The combo shows China's badminton player Lin Dan acts during his match against Scott Evans of Ireland during the men's singles badminton match at London 2012 Olympic Games, London, Britain, July 30, 2012. Lin Dan won the match 21-8, 21-14 and advanced to the next round. [Xinhua]

Wembley Arena was glitzy on Monday, with badminton stars Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei and Peter Gade progressing into the round of 16 in men's singles at the London Olympics.

The crowd became fanatic when Chinese pin-up Lin marched onto the court.

His opponent, Scott Evans from Ireland, appeared quite aggressive at the beginning of the first game, going all out to save each smash and catching the world No. 1 shuttler in a sitzkrieg. Their scores rose from 1-1 to 4-4. But he made mistakes from time to time in net shot, while Lin was gaining better form, beating the 25-year-old Irish 21-8.

When the second game started, Lin began making mistakes, and was once 1-5 lagged behind. But the world's 76th men's single player Evans failed to build up the good start. With his last shot crossing over the back boundary line, his road to men's singles podium was blocked. 21-14, Lin advanced to the round of 16 as expected.

Lin Dan is arguably one of the best players in the world. By the age of 28, he had completed the "Super Grand Slam", with all nine major titles in world badminton in pocket.

"Every player wants the gold medal but it is not my only goal. This is different from how I felt in 2008," he said. "I hope through my personal effort, I could affect more people and attract them to get involved in playing badminton."

Getting nervous was inevitable, he added. "You are nervous because you want to do well. I will take each and every competition seriously and hopefully my form could last till the end."

In comparison, Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia had a tougher battle.

The first game seemed a cakewalk for Lee, seeded as No. 1, when he impressed spectators with his abrupt change of direction and speed, thrashed his rival, Ville Lang from Finland 21-8.

In the second game, Lang, who was ranked 45 in the world, adopted the same strategy as Lee while the 30-year-old Beijing Olympic silver-medallist, with his ankle injury recovered 90 percent, began making mistakes. He lashed several smashes out of the court, and failed to retrieve the shuttlecock struck to the distant corner. A lift from the Fin brought the game to an end, 14-21.

The decider started with barrages of attack from both sides. Lee, who showed his sharpness again, unleashed such deadly smashes that the 25-year-old energetic Lang hit the shuttlecock to the other court. But the deadlock wasn't broken. At the interval, they were scored as 11-10.

While the two players exchanged position, the crowd gave them lasting applause to encourage both gritty shuttlers.

Lee made desperate attempts, forcing Lang to tumble or lapse with his signature explosiveness. The latter became inpatient and seemingly collapsed. During the second half of the decider Lee just lost one point, before his sturdy opponent whipped the shuttlecock out of the side line.

Audiences once again greeted him with thunderous applause, some rose up to pay tribute, while the modest Lee raised his racket in gratitude.

"I am not in good form as I suffered injury and haven't played for two months," Lee said. "It was hard for me to get adapted in the first competition."

Talking about his debacle in the second game, Lee said that his rival got excited at that time while he was slow.

"Then I stopped thinking too much and just performed in my own way, chasing the bird wherever it went," he said, hoping that situation could become better in the next a few days.

In another competition on Monday evening, veteran Peter Gade beat Pedro Martins from Portugal 21-14 and 21-8.

The Danish four-time Olympian, now fifth seed, ruled on the court in spite of some small mistakes.

"I am very happy about it," he said. "Pedro played quite well at the beginning, made it difficult for me. But I have made it."

Talking about the Olympics, Gade believed it easier to play in London than in Beijing.

"China has many good players. When they play at home, they will be even more difficult to beat. So it is an advantage. The Chinese are used to play here, but still less than us. We have to take that advantage."

Already 36, Gade was emotional when talking about what could be his last Olympics. "(You have) a lot of feeling when you enter a court you may know as one of the last time," he said. Not thinking of his Chinese rivals at the moment, he is preparing for the next match. "My next game will be tough and I will need to work hard for my points," he said. "Today was a good workout, not a tough match but a good starting match."

Gade, together with Lee, Indonesian genius Taufik Hidayat and Chinese pin-up Lin Dan had been known as the "big four", who have dominated world badminton arena for a decade. It was generally believed that they might bow out after the London Olympics.

Earlier on Monday, Lin defeated his Irish rival Scott Evans to march into the round of 16. Tauffick has yet another test before further advancement.

Dark horses, but not defeat for Chinese

Although competitions were not too fierce before the round of 16, Monday witnessed appearance of dark horses who edged out some famous players.

In the morning, Japanese Kenichi Tago, the No. 8 seed of men's singles, lost to world's 48 player, Niluka Karunaratne from Sri Lanka.

"It was very difficult to play him," said Tago after the competition. "I don't know what the reason was, but I couldn't play my own way today. I woke up and then I was playing. There is no injuries, I am perfectly all right."

To the Sri Lankan, it was a historical moment. The 27-year-old man who seemed to rise up from nowhere said, "it was an attacking game without a lot of defence, which was of advantage for me. I was trying to keep my defence. He didn't attack, so it was good."

In another event, rising South Korean shuttler Sung Ji Hyun, who is a big foe for the Chinese women players, met her Waterloo when confronted with Yip Pui Yin from Hong Kong.

But all Chinese players did well on Monday. Chen Long in men's singles, Wang Yihan and Wang Xin in women's singles, Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei in women's doubles and Chai Biao/Guo Zhendong in men's doubles all breezed past their rival to move one step closer to the final. Enditem

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