December 04, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1428

HONG KONG, Dec 3: World number one Lin Dan claimed his fourth consecutive Hong Kong Open title on Sunday in a contentious final against Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei.

‘Super Dan’ fought back from a game down to win 9-21, 21-15, 21-15 as the second-ranked Lee voiced anger at a series of line calls.

Lee frequently looked unhappy at the judging, protesting against a call in the first game and staring in disbelief at another in the decider. His claims marred an absorbing final between badminton’s numbers one and two, although Lee was also hampered by a knee injury he sustained in October.

The usually cocksure Lin was clearly rattled as Lee raced to an 8-3 lead in the first game, calling for the line judges to tuck their plastic passes away in a move that brought guffaws from the crowd.

But it was Lee’s turn to rack up errors in the second, netting a backhand to bring his opponent level. Lin was quickly on top in the third and quashed a late comeback as he smashed the winner off Lee’s serve.Earlier, top-ranked Xie Xingfang saw off Chinese team-mate and world champion Zhu Lin to win an error-strewn women’s final 21-19, 21-14.

Zhu led 17-12 in the first but capitulated with a string of mistakes including a botched backhand for the game. She fell behind early in the second but pulled back to within three points before her radar failed again, leaving a Xie shot that dropped inside the line on match point.

China claimed three of the five titles after Du Jing and Yu Yang won the women’s doubles.

Indonesia’s Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, and Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir, won the men’s and mixed doubles respectively.—AFP