congratulations to Kido, winning SS again after such a long time... however for me, this MD final is more like a fake one as MAS pair looks like already destinizing to be defeated... (though i had to believe it is not)
It was a very strange 3rd set... as strange as the day before when Liu/Qiu completely mowed down Boe/Mo in 2nd set. But this time, Liu/Qiu were on the receiving end of being mowed down.
KKK/TBH pairing should be split. It's a torture to watch them play and lifting the shuttle so often for the opponents to smash is a no 'brainer'. Sorry to say they deserved their loss.
Yup, much better than DEN SSP to nail 1 title in Europe soil All 5 finals were finished in straight-sets, close match in MS and XD, congrats to the winners! The last two SS in this year will shift to East Asia in couple of weeks, CHN SSP & HKG SS.
i dont understand with Koo/Tan, seriously i thought they will fight to die for the title, either the INA Pair was just too good for them or they seems not really want it. after a long wait for the title and with so many people have doubt in them, i was thinking this is gonna be their resurrection, maybe the decision not to split them was a good call but after this final i can see the motivation is not there nor hunger for the win. I just feel sorry for them, with those kind of skills they should win more prestigious title
With such poor performance for so long, they are still able to live a party lifestyle and get the fat salary, why bother to train/work so hard.. that's their mentality..
Splitting KKK/TBH may not be the solution. They are still the 2 best MD players in Malaysia. Who can be their new partners? Who else are there? Hoon/Tan, Lim/Goh? They are not at KKK/TBH's level yet. Malaysia coaches should just need to find ways to motivate them. If they can fight like the INA pairs in the final, they are still dangerous.
yesterday managed to watched the French Open SS finals after timezone delay. here are some thoughts. MS: With so many years of watching Peter Gade, which game style really isn't that big of a departure from the reigning top Asian players, Jan O was a refreshing change. Not the most elegant looking like Gade, but a powerful smashing and driving game which was effective and fast. pity that Tago was either shock or half asleep who managed to fend off some of the offensive but it was not enough. Honestly i don't know what the heck Tago was doing out there. If he had paid more effort like he did against Lee Chong Wei, the result might have been different. Jan O was good though, powerful and sharp, and despite his height he plays a very lethal driving game as well. but what is with that outfit? compression shorts that shows and high compression sockings? WS: Porntip was very very impressive defeating Eriko the day before with a commanding style that poor Eriko has not answer to. The final was a completely different match. Wang Shixian has the perfect style that counters Porntip with her fast, complete and never tired court coverage. she takes back whatever Porntip throws at her and often, rendering Porntip completely out of ideas. It was also a much bigger stage for the teenager and i think nervousness settled in, that and WSX basically blocks all her weapons shook her confidence and she made more mistakes than usual. WSX forces Porntip with fast attacking clears which works very well in neutralizing Porntip's backbending attack (literally!). and WSX's form has recovered a lot since pre/post-Olympics. WD: haven't watched this yet. XD: As usual when Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei and Xu Chen / Ma Jin steps into the same 20'x44' rectangle, there will be some sparks. There is no match-fixing here everyone. The speed of Ma Jin at the net is jawbreaking, her vision/anticipation, reaction, speed and quality of execution is an absolutely joy to watch. add to that her completely cucumber coolness as if she is saying, "dude, i do this for breakfast" is slowing making her one of my favorite XD ladies player around. the only flaw in their pairing is a often shaky Xu Chen. Not to take too much attention away, Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei did win but only marginally after a 28-26 first game. the synergy between the two Z's is flawless. their advantage over X/M is marginal and some of which has to do with them being a more balanced pair. MD: sigh. what can be said about KKK/TBH. i mean just look at the first game. they were practically playing 2-on-1 against an inexperienced youngster playing his very first SS final. and they managed to screw it up. I lost count on how many errors they made. and what a revelation Gideon Markus Fernaldi (what a name, but doesn't anyone think he looks more Korean than Indonesian?) is. He plays better and better and aside from a couple of occasions, never showed any nerve at all. all credits to the Indonesian who worked 2x harder out there than the Malaysians, who looked lazy and lost out there. KKK looks fat, and TBH looks like he haven't slept for 3 days.
^ Very astute observations as usual boss. XD: The 2 Z's are more balanced as you say. Even with Zhao at the back and Zhang in front, they're still able to score many times, whereas can't say the same for Xu in front with Ma at the back. MD: Kido was amazing with creative blocks and pirouette backhand, and Fernaldi was refreshing able to play both front or back. Koo/Tan? Two words: vomit blood.
I do find the WD and XD finals rather entertaining and WSX was in commanding form but JOJ looks like a clown and TBH/KKK are clowns...
Even the commentators said XC kept on tryng to beat the opponents using his power only. After the first game, XC looked exhausted already. They played over 90 points, and how many times did XC smash? I bet he smashed at least 400 times. And he covered 3/4 of the court the whole game. Poor XC.
