I remember WZM was courtside and coaching LD in a previous tournament. LD welcomes advice from his junior teammates. Not a lot of people can do that.
I think people have to accept that he is already 30+, same goes to LCW and Taufik Hidayat. Taufik was eliminated the first round before he retired. The young guns will always have better physical ability, endurance and faster movement than older players.. Hope LD can come back stronger and more prepared in the next match.
IMO, better a loss (or few losses) against one (or some) foreign opponent(s) in any tournament (SS or SSP) than a lost in the early round of Oly. Because one NOC is limited to just 2 slots, if LD is not really fit for that Oly slot, better to give it to his better compatriot, IF any. For any sane mind, a loss in the very early round like this will remove the complacency, if any, a harsh reality that will remind him that he must train very hard to remain fit and competitive in the game... do not over enjoy the successes and life if still wanna be a highly competitive sportman Having said this, if he remains to be the top two that CHN squad have in MS then he deserves his Oly slot. The last thing I wanna see is that the Oly slot is "granted" to him due to his big name or past records alone (that his compatriots must give away their chances to him unjustifiably). I am quite aware that a loss in one tournament is too premature to make any verdict. The journey to Oly is still quite some time, so let's see the progress as time goes by... Just a thought... PS: I am seeing the fade out of Cai Yun, it's rather pitiful to see him still playing around but no longer competitive. And since he's playing double, any young player paired with him will also suffer the decline... a sad reality. Hopefully this opinion is not correct.
And at risk of sounding provocative or controversial, allow me to humbly say this : it's when Lin Dan played below himself,somewhat slow, passive, reactive, not attacking much, mostly defensive stroke play, hardly any sudden injection of pace - that it made his opponent(s) looked impressive. We don't have to look far - at the Sudirman Cup, the two matches he played with Marc Zwiebler and the one with Takuma Ueda as well if you like. Weren't Marc or Takuma moving and playing at a relatively fast pace, very positive and quite proactive, yet neither of them could gain the upper hand from Lin Dan? And what about the number of smashes and dive retrievals from Lin Dan, not to mention the intensity and sense of urgency he displayed then. Just compare and contrast his game with Viktor yesterday (28th May) and you'd get the picture. Also look at Viktor's game with Xue Song today - VA wasn't able to outplay XS , won G1, 21-19, lost G2, 18-21, before XS lost his way in the 3rd which I attributed more to his (XS) inexperience in dealing with such a tall player with substantial height and reach in addition to a good attack and defence.
For the purpose outlined above, the one that is relevant and I care of is the one related to Oly qualification due to the very limited Oly slots! I am aware that LD was lost to Srikanth in 2014 and Tommy Sugiarto in 2015 as well. But my concern is more to the effective use of the available Oly slots than one's personal glory
That's true. In one of his story movies, he said he couldn't go out without his disguise. Last year in Sydney, he said that he was enjoying the atmosphere as not much people recognize him and he can freely walk and enjoy the sights. A trade off for being famous.
Why did you have to lose in the first round again at least there's still the World Championships to look forward to.
I have a feeling Lin dan time is up , twice lost to Tommy , 1st round out .. from the way he goes, he not only can't make it to olypimics next year , China may ask him to step down to give way to younger players !
Only answer to your question= BWF world championship...same venue...same huha..huha...let's await the result.Kinda agree with you,he is not stable as he was,that's one of things which separated him from the ocean.He was so stable that opponent were literally mentally beaten.But now this slow and unstable version has been solved by many.Let's see how much he has in his tank to take a page off the book from Chen Long era
Don't forget Lee Chong Wei is 32 years old , 1 year older than Lin Dan , but he seems to be faster than Lin Dan now, last year when Chong wei was 31 years old, he was still as fast as ever. When Lin Dan can't even beat Tommy , how can he match Lee Chong Wei ?