Some players might have the propensity to suffer less than others from fatigue and endure better. Also some work harder to increase those characteristics in their training. If you follow a training program to increase your endurance and stamina and you pour your heart in it, trying to give it all rather than just completing the exercise to get it done, on a large time scale, say months or years, that will make a small but noticeable difference at this level of play. On court, on the mental side too, it gets a player to get used to give it all no matter what is the match situation rather than giving up easily. Lastly, it gets even harder to give it all when training alone. In the case of Michelle Li, I'm sure she works hard but when you are part of a team where you all train together, somehow compete all the time with one another, even at the gym and where a coach can guide you or motivate you, well that makes a world of difference I believe.
Yes I have seen them fatigued or injured. They are all human after all, nobody is perfect. There won't be enough stamina for any player to keep on playing and traveling all year long without feeling tired or fatigued. It's always easy for others to criticize.
I heard that Jia Yifan/Chen Qingchen's participation hangs in the balance, it depends on how well JYF recovers from her wrist injury. There's still time to consider her decision.
Will they be replaced by the next pair in queue then? Coz having someone injured or withdrawn after the draw is out is pain to watch. A round robin of 3 players/pairs in a quest of top2 makes no sense
It has happened numerous times, because they did not want to lose the points gained from playing in the group stages... Agree that it sucks though Maybe another rule saying that a lost because of 'retired' should not be given points can be added in the group stage
Really? I think the players who withdraw during the group stage will not get any ranking points. I could be wrong though. I don't think CL get any points in SSF last year.
Following BWF's amazing logic, ChenJia's replacement will be the next non-Japanese pair down the ranking. The Danish or Indonesian pair with almost 50% less points than FukuHiro, will qualify instead
Quite honestly, I don't agree with that at all. Her finances can't be all that pressed if she's playing a staggering 24 tournaments in a single year, most of them resulting in early exits (meaning: with little money earned to make up for the expenses). Out of 20 tournaments counted for Guangzhou, 8 were first round exits, another 9 were second round exits. That's seventeen out of 20 tournaments in which she didn't win more than a single match. In points, that's 35470 for the second round losses and 15770 points for just showing up to lose, for a total of 51240 points. Yes, 51240 points for 9 first round wins. Not only is that 73% of her point total, that's also the same amount Tai Tzu Ying gets for her semi final at a 500 event, two 750 titles and two 1000 titles (23 wins). To sum it up: 9 wins (first round) = 23 wins (semi final + four major titles). Sorry, Michelle Li is a really nice person and it's nice to see someone from Canada do well, but I struggle to call her place at the WTF "deserved". If anything, it is an eye-opening example of how flawed this system is that rewards quantity over quality.
She played in as many tournaments back to back because it would be more expensive to travel back and forth between tournaments then just to play 3 or 4 tournaments in a row within an area. Usually BWF arranged 4 tournaments to be very close to each other geographically. Let's say Malaysia Open -> Indonesia Open -> Thailand Open -> Singapore Open. If you are self-financed what would you have done? After asking for her supporters back home to fund all her travel expenses, I would play in as many tournaments I could and earned as much reward money as I could. Do you think the rewards she had earned could cover all her expenses? Flight tickets, accommodations during the tournaments, her live expenses, her training, coaches fee etc etc. She didn't even have enough fund to have her own coach to be with her. She flied alone not without her team, not with her coach who could probably had heighten her chances to go further in one tournament. I am not saying she really is 'well deserved' as you might have expected her to be. If you won't allow someone like Michelle Li in the WTF, how could you really promote Badminton as a professional sport without any MA involved? I think BWF rather has a little success story here regarding their new scoring system though flawed and overshadowed by being heavily misused by the wrong parties. This was what they were trying to promote I supposed, but we know it didn't go well (far from it). If we all could have "ideal" WTF, do you think we would have this qualifiers lists now? Rather than having the better quality players (whom I don't think they well deserved to be in the list) retiring in R1 to earn their spots, I respect and appreciate this quantity player's struggle to get in the list more.
That is true for all players, big federation behind them or not. It's just that not a lot of players fly to Australia in between All England and US/Canada Open. I don't want to criticize ML or patronize about what tournaments she should partake in. She knows infinitely better than me how to manage her body, time and finances. I wish her all the best for her career. I just disagree that her participation at the WTF is an indication of success. It is not. Neither of the system, nor of her as a player. The struggle is real. Personally, I don't think losing a lot should reward you with anything in professional sports (apart from your expenses). One solution would be to count all tournament levels, but only include points from the quarter finals and above. This way you'd avoid both the top players squeezing in a few extra points by basically throwing games in the early rounds and also prevent mediocre players (come on, 8 first rounds, 9 second rounds from 20 tournaments) from being included in a "best 8" advertisement. Once again, I have absolutely nothing against Michelle Li. I just don't think she's anywhere near the top 8 players in general or the top 8 players of 2018. It's only because of the flawed system that she's going to participate.
I agree with your solution. Honestly, your solution is much better than my proposed alternate format of WTF which has been posted last week. But, it is harder to be implemented. Besides two points that you have made, your solution also means that the players can't afford to slack off. The players are required to perform his/her best for most of the season. The gap between the players at the top will be wider. Now, I want to see your alternate ways of qualification to WTF along with the ranking table using your format if you have time. I believe the ranking table using your format will be better than the actual ranking table.
Oh, I understand your points. And I agree with you totally. When I said success I wasn't talking about the system nor about the player. But it is a little step for Badminton in general to be recognized as an international professional sport where independent players could be part of the "best" (Best to the standard that BWF untruthfully claim). Well actually either Michele Li or Zhang Beiwen would do, but as for now ML has more points than any other players using the current system, nothing we could do even though many people would have preferred ZBW over her. Rules are rules. For BWF to stick to it to the end despite the controversies and all bad responses (some calling WTF "WTF" : me or some said BWF were handled by baboons : .....), I'd give them a tiny bit respect for that. Then again, that's just my opinion. The only positive thing I consider BWF has contributed for Badminton this year. With this hopefully more people from the other part of the world (US, Canada, etc) would take more interest in badminton seriously. For being a professional player, you can't have a full time job unless you are from Japan I supposed who are officially employed by their companies. So there are less pressure for the players to worry about their financial situation. What disappointed me more with the incidents in the final tournament wasn't really about players throwing away their first round matches or for them to resort to that less honorable way to earn their spots. It was more that the clubs/teams useing this sport for their own agendas. I could understand that the Danish were desperate to get at least a spot in WTF. But for the Japanese, it was more like internal competition between the local clubs rather than saving their country's face or leaving good impression of Badminton to the world. Having Watanabe play both disciplines instead of giving over their spot to Kamura/Sonoda in MD, I mean, seriously?? Yeah some would argue that Watanabe won both XD and MD last year in All Japans. But I hardly think that all Japan's level of MDs or XDs were quite up there yet among "Best 8" and it was last year. The other pairs won't let them have it easily this time, especially not after winning All England
Yeah, I also think that it is Unisys who made a move about this. Only Unisys players participate in Syed Modi. I think the internal competition between local clubs has been there already. Well, Unisys has the best team among other clubs. So, it is understandable that Unisys wants to send as many players as possible to WTF. If you ask why Unisys has the best team, then let's check about its players. Unisys has a pair of Olympic champion, a former WC, a reigning All England champion. The first two that I mentioned earlier also won both All England and SSF. Regarding about Endo/Watanabe, I just hope that they play well in WTF or it will be a joke.
I can understand Taka/Matsu and Wata/Higa as Japan's best bet beside the reigning WC. But Endo/Wata.. that's just greedy by Unisys. Not a trait that I think highly of.
You have omitted to mention the players' notion of loyalty. In Japan, players' loyalty to their corporation supersedes any sentiment they may have towards the nation, .... or to the world at large (which, incidentally, is the least of their priorities). The corporation looks after players well, and will continue to look after them long after they have become uncompetitive and been ditched by the national team. As such, the players and their support staff will do their utmost to 'repay' the favour and bring prestige to the corporation, even where this means displacing compatriots who may have a higher chance of success. Actually, in Japan, no papers or SNS networks have even picked up on this controversy, which means that the actions of Unisys are considered to be in the realm of normal practice. By extension, it also means that SonoKam and FukuHiro will not be as ruffled as we imagine. If they are feeling any resentment, it will be against themselves and their support staff for inadequate planning. Unisys players have done incredibly well here. Irrespective of the final result, this particular team will be represented in four of the five categories at Guangzhou: WS, MD, WD, and XD. That is an amazing feat in itself.
Yeah by the way Unisys is praised for their achievements this year in WTF, I expect we would see more of these internal competitions within JPN team and probably another match fixing acts next year. I don't think the other corporation would just sit back and watch the other corporations taking all the glories. That's what my disappointment is about, Japan's corporations are the ones competing in Badminton with the players as their pawn.
It is not so much internal competition, as players and support staff working (and doing their utmost) to bring prestige to their individual corporations. Although the result may the same, the motivating factor is totally different. And, calling the players 'pawns' doesn't do them justice; they are actors.
