agree, zhang nan clearly the best front court player in the world right now. maybe it will change once lyd back to the top again, who knows ?
I wonder what plan they have for Liu/Zhang.. After watching today's match, I think He Jiting would be a good candidate to be partnered with Zhang Nan if Liu Cheng didn't show any significant improvement.
No need to separate he jiting with his partner. They are doing well at right now. I think they will enter top 10 soon
Really? I don't think they are doing that well, at least for now. Would be a good experience for He Jiting too to be partnered/mentored with Zhang Nan for a couple of years. Then he can resume his partnership with Tan Qiang after the Olympics.
I think ZN will partner Liu Xuanxuan after she finishes her junior duties this year. Li Yinhui will probably only concentrate on WD next year. Personally I think Ou Xuanyi is a great find. He could be the ideal back court player for ZN. Agree that Liu Cheng has his limitations and has probably reached the ceiling of his potential
I'm afraid Zhang Nan is now stuck in a limbo, he is under instruction to concentrate on only one discipline, MD, forced to give up XD except as a backup and to help mentor the juniors, most of the time, Li Yinhui, and yet his MD partnership with Liu Cheng is clearly less than ideal. If he is to change his MD partner, he has to start straightaway with the right choice - nobody can guarantee that - as obviously there's no time to waste for the new combo must battle very hard and try to rise through the ranks as quickly as possible. Breaking up Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen is out of the question, too disruptive and it will suddenly leave CHN without a single reliable MD pair among the top few. That leaves either He Jiting/Tan Qiang or Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong, both pairs are promising but not particularly impressive yet, though I favour retaining HJT/TQ as I feel they have more potential than HCK/ZHD at the moment. Between Han CK and Zhou HD, I'm not too sure who is a better match for Zhang Nan as I haven't watched many of their matches. The more important consideration is both the youngsters are fairly inexperienced, still only 20 years old, so too HJT/TQ. For sure, Zhang Nan needs a strong rear court player who is not too bad at the front area when necessary, like Fu Haifeng, who is certainly a big shoe for anyone to fill. In a sense, I doubt Zhang Nan would be too pleased with any of the two or even the other two. By the way, I remember there is a certain Huang Kaixiang who seems to have fallen off the radar. Another thing is HKX is more of a front court player when he once partnered Zheng Siwei in MD so he might not be a suitable choice for ZN, on top of his being young and inexperienced as well. To sum up, Zhang Nan's situation is problematic. I suppose for the time being he has to continue with Liu Cheng and hope for the best. Years ago , Zhang Nan was very fortunate to have the not-too-old maestro ,Fu Haifeng, when the older Cai Yun retired,and together they made history. Such opportunities are indeed hard to come by and he happened to be the lucky recipient, at the right place and the right time. No such luck this time, that's life.
I guess the old fantasy of ours on the potential pairing with BYX would've been something! But it's too late now. He approaching 30's.
I think ZhangNan have to quit XD. That is the solution, sometimes its not just LC fault. You have to look at yourself.
Of course it's not entirely LC's fault, but ZN could never always be in his best even if he quit XD. The question is, is LC good enough to cover for ZN when he needs it?
He is already not at his best. Playing XD will make it worst. Remember ChenQingChen is even better at WD while playing XD with ZSW. But at least during tournament now, she can concentrate till Finals not that she has converted her Finals into victories except in AG. (Its weird that she won her first 6SS Finals and the one she struggles with was XD Finals).
I just watched their match at the China Open. Liu Cheng was the worst player by FAR on a court that included Mohammed Ahsan - that easily eradicates any chance at winning big titles. In the second game, he must've made errors or set up the Indonesians on at least 15 of the 21 points they scored. Unbelievable. This madness has to stop, there's no improvement, in fact he's only getting worse. Put him with someone else, maybe out of the spotlight where expectations aren't high. Maybe he can so a Ko Sung Hyun and have a resurgence with a different partner, but this pair is clearly a waste of time by now. I've never seen a pro player so confused and indecisive on how he should take a shot, and switch between his forehand and backhand so awkwardly, since Matthias Boe trying to defend in 2010-2012 I have no idea what happened to Lu Kai, but I feel like even he would be an improvement at this point. Or take a junior player that's fresh and willing to learn. At the very least he could get some experience, even if the pair doesn't win anything meaningful.
What is feared came truth. Its true, LC played really bad in second game but it was ZN who gifted the first game away showing mental frailty( i think both didnt perform well in the first game). There are countless times they lost by 2 points either in a rubber match ( against LiLiu ChinaOpen17 and IvanovSozonov and FajarRian the one i can remember) Had they not lost these kinds 2 points, maybe LC will feel better. It might be hard to separate them now that OlympicQualification is coming and they are registered from Denmark and France Open right? To make matter worse, they are the defending champ at DO. When it rains, it pours. So much tougher for new pair, even more so in MD where all the opponents are hunting like you are deer in headlights. Of course, many pairs are also inconsistent in MD, so they really should still be in top 8 when the time comes but in a way its sad, 2 years of partnerships only 2 titles.
They only were in a close situation because of Liu Cheng's horrible play, really can't put too much blame on ZN there. I can't imagine being in his shoes - from such heights (Olympic medals, WC titles) to such a low standard that your opponents barely have to move to force your partner into errors...and let's be clear, a large portion of those errors were absolutely not forced, and with the shuttle above net height. Inexcusable for any decent player (at their level). The way they ended that match also makes it seem like ZN is just fed up (no hand shake/high five or anything with LC)
It wasn't a mental thing, ZN only made a service error in a bad timing, the opponent's game points, which were gifted by LC in the first place. ZN has been struggling with his serves ever since this experimental new service rule took place. As they are in top 10, they could try out ZN with a new partner and have LC with a different one or even a XD to avoid the fine. Their only titles were World Champions and a Super Series Premiere which many long term pairs couldn't even achieve. It was a big achievement considering.