China sweep the board at the Yonex All England Championships

China became the first nation for more than 60 years to win all five titles at the All England Open Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.In the process 21-year-old Wang Yihan won the women’s singles in her second All England and Lin Dan won his fourth men’s singles in six successive final appearances when he repeated his Olympic win over Malaysian world No 1 Lee Chong Wei.China also captured the three doubles titles through He Hanbin and Yu Yang in the mixed, Zhang Yawen and Zhao Tingting in an all-Chinese women’s doubles final, and former world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng took the men’s doubles.Golden boy Lin Dan let slip 10-6 and 16-12 lead in the first game as Lee Chong Wei edged 19-17 ahead. But he then lost focus and Lin Dan took the opening game before running away with the second to secure a 21-19 21-12 victory.Lin Dan, who was eager to celebrate by going shopping, said: “I felt I played quite well but we both did and the real winners had to be the fans who saw the match.“There were a couple of times in the first set when I let him get an advantage but I recovered and I thought I played well.”Lee said: “It was a better match than our Olympic meeting but he has improved! He has got a psychological advantage now after beating me three times in a row recently. Next time I need to break up his rhythm. He is a good attacker and plays very fast.”By the time Lin Dan had lifted his title, China had already won the mixed doubles when Olympic bronze medallists He Hanbin and Yu Yang defeated Ko Sung Hyun and Han Jung Eun of Korea 13-21 21-15 21-9.Then Zhang Yawen, the 2007 women’s doubles winner with Wei Yili, took the title with new partner Zhao Tingting when the seventh seeds overcame team-mates Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei 21-13, 21-15.Next Wang Yihan added the All England title to last weekend’s German Open victory as she proved too calm and too strong for defending champion Tine Rasmussen.That denied the Dane a third Super Series title in a row following wins in Korea and Malaysia in January.The Dane was undoubtedly left drained by an amazing semi-final comeback from a game and 16-9 down to defeat Jiang Yianjiao 24 hours earlier.Although Rasmussen saved a match point before winning the second game she could not deny her younger opponent, who lifted the title with a 21-19, 21-23, 21-11 victory.Wang said: “In the third game I felt physically stronger. It was a pity I didn’t take the match point in the second game but I really enjoyed myself out there.“I had secretly imagined what it would be like to win the title but when I started the match I just focused on what I had to do. I think I played in my peak form today.”China had won four titles in 2005 but the elusive fifth title came their way when former world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng defeated Koreans Han Sang Hoon and Hwang Ji Man 21-17 21-15.China became the first nation since Denmark in 1948 to win all five titles at the All England and head coach Li Yonbo said: "We've got a really good team spirit and all the players wanted to achieve it. Obviously other countries wanted to but we really knew we could."
Source : http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk