title by beating familiar rivals Peter Gade in the semifinal and Lee Chong Wei in a very tight three game final at Wembley Arena, a venue which would host the badminton competition for 2012 Summer Olympics. The rather up and down season for Lin continued with the China Masters in September where he was ousted in the semi-finals, and at the Japan Open where he withdrew from the semifinals. This was followed up by a shock exit in the second round of the Denmark Open to Hong Kong player Wong Wing Ki, and another withdrawal during the semifinals of French Open despite leading in the match. He told officials that he was suffering from paronychia (an infection below the fingernail). This was his sixth retirement of the season and many in the media imputed that this was part of a strategy to improve the rankings of other Chinese singles players to allow the maximum number to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Both Lin and Chinese coach Li Yongbo denied this, citing, instead, the heavy tournament schedule that BWF required of top players, and Lin's need to be ready for the biggest events such as the Olympics. In any case, Lin's slump did not last long. He ended the year by winning three straight events, His fifth Hong Kong Open, the China Open, and his first Super Series Masters Finals title. 2012 Lin started the year by losing to Lee Chong Wei in the final of the Korea Open, and then losing in the second round of the Malaysia Open to Denmark's Jan O. Jorgensen. In early March he took his first title of the season by winning his fifth German Open. The very next week he won his fifth All England Open title as rival Lee Chong Wei was forced to retire in discomfort early in the second game of the final. In April, Lin was again the subject of some controversy when he withdrew from the semifinals of the Badminton Asia Championships, a move that was openly seen as a ploy to secure an Olympic berth for his compatriot Chen Jin. In Wuhan, China in May, Lin Dan and his teammates won all of their individual matches in each tie they played to win their fifth consecutive Thomas Cup (remarkably China's women also went entirely undefeated to regain the Uber Cup from South Korea). With only a week between