champion for 2007. In August, Lin Dan extended his reign as the world champion when he beat Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21–11, 22–20 in the final of the tournament held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lin Dan thus became the first man since Yang Yang to win back to back world championships. 2008 Lin started the season with a defeat in the final of the Korea Open to Lee Hyun-il. It was a match filled with controversy as Lin had a scuffle with South Korea's coach Li Mao after a line call dispute. Lin refused to apologize and received no punishment from Badminton World Federation (BWF) after its probe of the altercation. In March he suffered another defeat to his compatriot Chen Jin in the final of the All England Open, which was followed by press accusations that Lin "gave" the match to Chen in order to increase Chen's ranking points for Olympic qualification (which placed stringent limits on the number of participants from any one country). In the following week, Lin won his first Swiss Open. At the Asia Championships, Lin was again accused of helping his compatriot when his loss to Chen Jin in the semifinals ensured Chen's qualification for the Olympic Games. On 10 April 2008, Lin was involved in yet another controversy when he struck coach Ji Xinpeng in front of his teammates and the media during an intra-squad tournament prior to the Thomas Cup. The incident was allegedly triggered by his unhappiness with Ji's arrangement of the starting line-up for the tournament. Despite the episode, in May Lin proceeded to win each match he played in the Thomas Cup until China's semifinal clash with Malaysia when he lost rather tamely to Lee Chong Wei. However, China still managed to reach the final by edging Malaysia 3-2, then retained the cup against South Korea with Lin's win at first singles helping China to a 3-1 victory. Lin won the Thailand Open, his last tournament before the 2008 Olympic Games. In the Beijing Olympic Games, he beat Hong Kong's Ng Wei in the first round, Park Sung-hwan in the second round, and Peter Gade in the quarterfinals. He then beat his teammate Chen Jin in straight sets to set up a "dream" final against Lee Chong Wei. However, the final was a one-sided match as Lin demolished Lee 21–12, 21–8, and became the first men's singles player to