SF - MS - Lin Dan vs. Peter Hoeg Gade - Li Ning Singapore Open 2011 

Lin dan wasn't toying. The Dane pushed him pretty hard this time

Peter Chui agreed peter was on fire considering it was his retirement year

@@peterchui1964 Lin Dan definitely could have played faster harder and more focused. Was definitely not pushed hard.

None of them are enough. The standard of badm has dropped.

This is him out of his prime. His prime was 2008-2009 where he was completely unstoppable and unbeatable by anyone in the scene. He's still a very strong player after but 2011 was most definitely not his prime.

@@lmelc out??? His prime was 2008-2013. If 2011 was not his prime, why did he get gold medal olympic in 2012???

@@lmelc I somewhat agree. I think from ‘04 to ‘07 he was great, already the best player in the world bar the odd defeat by Taufik, but not in beast mode yet. China wanted to be sure he’d win Beijing ‘08 and brought in Tang Xianhu to activate his “prime”, “godlike”, beast mode from ‘08 to 2010 (Beijing Olympics, AE ‘09 and TC ‘10 were good examples of him being “prime”). Then from 2011 onwards, he was still by far the best player, but decided to play a slower, stroke-based game like Xia Xuanze, probably with the intention to lengthen his career. So you see 2011 SSF (If I’m not mistaken!) and AE ‘12 were him playing a slower game, but still more than good enough tactically to slowly squeeze the life out of his opponents, like freaking chess player, instead of just blasting everyone off court like Olympics ‘08. The AE’ 12 semi against Taufik was such an example and an absolute pleasure to watch.

@@lmelc this was still his prime. He just plays smarter instead of raw physical plays. Edit: If anyone is way out of their prime, it's Peter Gade. Not since his double knee surgeries in 2002 and physically downhill from there.

@@lmelc he just changed the playing style -less relying on the strong smash(actually still many 😂),but still the prime in 2010-13

amzing!