China's Lin Dan wins badminton world title

MADRID: Lin Dan made sure that there was certain to be some kind of romantic celebration when a spasmodically brilliant display at last won him the world title on Sunday.              

When Lin and his girl-friend Xie Xingfang both won the All-England title in January they celebrated by going on the fair-ground big wheel in Birmingham.              

Now there will be reason for a special evening again after Lin's 18-21, 21-17, 21-10 victory over his Chinese team mate Bao Chunlai.        

Xie, the defending world champion, was due to play the women's singles final immediately afterwards against the-top-seeded Zhang Ning, another Chinese player.        

The only surprise was that Lin, who has been the world's best player for much of the past three years, had never won the world title before.            

But he seems to reserve his almost unbeatable brilliance for certain occasions and, in this match, for special phases of the match.    

There were times, as for instance in final few points of the first game against Bao, when he seemed to be taking it all too casually. And there were others, such as the phase from 17-17 in the second and throughout much of the third, when he played at a higher speed and burst out from periods of defence with bursts of thrilling attack.         

Bao once again showed the steady temperament, good defence and ability to counter-attack which brought him surprise wins earlier in the week against Lee Chong Wei, the number one seed from Malaysia, and Lee Hyun-Il, the number five seed from Korea.        

But in the final stages he was outplayed by Lin, who revealed the full extent of the dominance he could impose with the point at 19-10 when he flick-served the shuttle over his opponent's head, moved forward and nearly buried Bao's high and struggling return of serve through the floor.            

Through these contrasts it had not always been easy to gauge Lin's frame of mind, but that became clear with his spectacular celebration. He held his head as if amazed, fell slowly over as if unconscious, rolled over with his shirt over his head and raised his legs repeatedly in the air. When he got up he shook the umpire's hand before making a special point of embracing Bao.        

"I'm not sad at being second because I did my best and I believe I will do better in future," said the 23-year-old loser. "I was very excited," said Lin, which sounded like an under-statement.  "After losing to Taufik (Hidayat of Indonesia) in the final last year I decided to work extra hard.           

"I've kept up a high level all this year with the training I have done. But I'm not unhappy that I didn't meet Taufik face to face this time (he was beaten by Chen Hong) - I am just happy with the result."