Very beneficial for young up-and-comers, if you ask me. The kind of valuable experience they will never forget and for those who survived, it'd stand them in good stead in future.
Tomorrow's semifinals between He Bingjiao and Chen Yufei is more about fitness, stamina and endurance than anything. Frankly, for that reason alone, I don't see either one taking the final. At least, HBJ won't lose too many points if she fails to defend her JPN Open title.
Shi Yuqi is still on the learning curve, not expected to trouble LCW tomorrow. But I like it that the young gun SYQ gets to learn first hand from the master again, hope to see some improvement in his game against the real deal.
Yes Lee/Ko.. superb individuals and experienced at that time also lost to ahsan hendra in 3 straight SS Finals. These are times to learn. How much dissapointment BoeMo have faced, cant be for nothing.
To think that CHN WS only have 19/20-year-olds to depend on, what a sorry state of affairs, thrown to the frontline when they aren't fully prepared. Which of them can assume the mantle of hoisting aloft the CHN flag albeit under difficult conditions.
So in the end, the composition of the SF is as follows (if CYN/LSH lost the WD game) 6 Japan 4 China 2 Korea 2 Indonesia 2 Denmark 1 each Malaysia, Spain, India, Russia
He is in unwinding mode after the WC and CNG to recharge. There is a limit to what a 34-yr old body can take. He knows it too well. I have a hunch that he may not even have a go at the title in the China SSP. Watch him in next year's Asian Games , Thomas Cup and WC.
Right on, he's not giving himself any pressure, just enjoying himself and prolonging his career, longevity a la Peter Gade whom he wanted to emulate, and I 'd include Lee Hyun Il. A luxury few can hope for and many would envy. Personally,I have to keep reminding myself, he is just Lin Dan, not Super Dan anymore, if you know what I mean.
Good line up for tomorrow, except for WD: MS - LCW vs SYQ WS - NO vs CM WD - NK/YN vs KHN/KHY MS - SWH vs VA MD - Kevin/Gideon vs Boe/Mog.
Too bad, there's no Ct3 livestream as I'd love to see Chen Yufei got routed in G2 after trouncing Ohori in G1, and then fought tooth and nail to grab G3. I'm hoping to see a case of mind over matter. Frankly, both Chen Yufei and, esp, He Bingjiao, can't hold a candle to Nozomi when it comes to power of endurance; that's precisely what I'd wish the two youngsters to learn from the newly crowned WC.
Well, this is a good line up overall I think. I would like to finally see Hana/Hee Yong Kong combination which ousted Yaqiong/Xiaohan at the qualifier