I never expect SWH to be a serious contender for the WC title all the time. But, he does stay within the top 10 for a long time, even until now. At least, he has one bronze WC medal. I agree that the quality is still there. But, compare to the previous years, this one is slightly less quality. Well, if talking about quality, let every players prove themselves. The five players that you mentioned are the prime candidate for the title, though I won't completely rule out CL.
I'm inclined to agree with you and not underestimate Son Wan Ho who has proven before his capability of upsetting one of the top few contenders in any tournament. Didn't he beat Momota last November at the HK Open? And I hasten to add, he was the only one who could take a set off the peak Chen Long at ROG'16. In a way, it's somewhat disappointing and undesirable (through nobody's fault) that these two years World Championships in Men's Singles department is a bit short of all the best and most promising world title contenders, more so at Basel's. Well, we can only put it down to unforeseen circumstances. I'm beginning to miss the heydays of Lin Dan , Lee CW and Chen Long, when every World Championship and Olympic Games were keenly contested by the best of the best.
In men's singles they still have world number 1 and reigning world champion participating. And in my opinion Ginting or Antonsen have better chance to beat Momota than Shi Yuqi or Axelsen. For women's singles reigning olympic and world champion is missing. And Tai Tzu Ying is not playing at the level she has dominated the sport for last two years. I would say Chen Yufei is the favourite followed by Yamaguchi and Tai Tzu Ying.
Well, in Momota's opinion, Shi Yuqi is considered his main threat among the five he picked as his chief rivals recently,which, surprisingly, excluded Ginting whom he's defeated in the last few encounters, but included Axelsen despite his one-sided H2H in KM's favour. Personally, I'd also point to Shi Yuqi as his most tricky opponent at the moment, and I feel we should now include the in-form Chou Tien Chen in the running as well. Nevertheless, on paper, the MS crown is Momota's to lose but , as they say, always expect the unexpected. However, looking at the draw, Momota is expected to sail into the semifinals at the very least, if not a foregone conclusion, before he lives up to his billing and mounts the winner's podium regardless who is waiting for him in the title bout. As for WS, I feel Marin's absence alone isn't as impactful as in MS, as there are really several other top contenders capable of denying her clinching the WS crown, viz., Tai Tzu Ying, Akane Yamaguchi, Nozomi Okuhara, Intanon Ratchanok, Pusarla Sindhu, and Chen Yufei. Generally speaking, the WS world title is a more open field now. Just my opinion.
Me too, if I have to choose, I'd say Jonatan Christie in the top half and Chou Tien Chen in the bottom half are more like it. After them comes Anders Antonsen, Anthony Ginting and Kantaphon Wangcharoen depending on their respective form. Darkhorses? Possibly, Sai Praneeth, Angus Ng Kah Long, Kanta Tsuneyama, and, perhaps, Chen Long, not in any order. However, admittedly, Momota's form at the Japan Open so impressed me that I somehow doubt anyone in the draw can stop Momota retaining his crown.
I am not sure about Antonsen but I tend to agree with Ginting. It's probably a part of Ginting's game for making unforced errors, but it would be much tougher to defeat him IF he could minimize those errors. Except for that match in Indonesia Masters, I think Ginting usually played rather well against Momota in particular. Anyway, this only the chance of defeating Momota in particular though, not the chance of winning the tournament.
List of the WC medalists who participate in this WC. MS Q1 - Kento Momota, Lin Dan, Nguyen Tien Minh Q2 - Tommy Sugiarto, Jan O Jorgensen Q3 - Chen Long, Daren Liew Q4 - None WS Q1 - Akane Yamaguchi, Ratchanok Intanon Q2 - Chen Yu Fei, Saina Nehwal Q3 - Nozomi Okuhara, He Bing Jiao, Sung Ji Hyun Q4 - Pusarla Venkata Sindhu MD Q1 - Wang Chi Lin Q2 - Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan Q3 - Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda Q4 - Li Jun Hui / Liu Yu Chen, Liu Cheng / Zhang Nan, Hiroyuki Endo WD Q1 - Mayu Matsumoto / Wakana Nagahara, Shiho Tanaka / Koharu Yonemoto Q2 - Chen Qing Chen / Jia Yi Fan, Greysia Polii / Apriyani Rahayu Q3 - Misaki Matsutomo / Ayaka Takahashi, Ashwini Ponnappa, Li Yin Hui (her WC medal is from XD only) Q4 - Yuki Fukushima / Sayaka Hirota, Lee So Hee / Shin Seung Chan XD Q1 - Zheng Si Wei / Huang Ya Qiong, Wang Chi Lin (his WC medal is from MD only) Q2 - Chris Adcock / Gabrielle Adcock, Wakana Nagahara (her WC medal is from WD only) Q3 - None Q4 - Wang Yi Lyu / Huang Dong Ping, Tang Chun Man / Tse Ying Suet, Ashwini Ponnappa, Misaki Matsutomo (the latter two have their WC medal from WD only)
Is world badminton going through a reconstruction phase? I do not see the same excitement & rivalries from older years. With Lee Chong Wei retiring, Lin dan has nothing to fight and win. There is no worthy opponent for an average world number one Kento Momoto. In Men's doubles, gone are the days of fiery battle between at least 4 world-class pairs (Kai Yn+FHF, LYD+JJS, Denmark pairs, Indonesian pairs & the Japanese ones.) But today, it is the minions and a few others not to the same level. Only if Chirag Shetty/rankireddy can provide some underdog excitements, -we can only hope.
Why don't you invent some time machine to go back in time? They didn't have as many tournaments back then. Right now even great players got injured, inconsistent etc because of the tight and busy schedule. It's not as easy for everyone to keep their form good all the time.
Agree with this...generally not as exciting these days. If you take MD for example, the only ones to challenge the #1's recently are from a past generation who are already way past their prime! Just shows that the current generation is obviously weaker than before, and even commentators mentioned this multiple times from a year or two back. Although I still don't like that top players are forced to play (a couple more) more tournaments than before. I already called out in the past that I'd expect more injuries because of this, and sadly it seems to be the case. https://www.badmintoncentral.com/fo...dictions-thread-for-2019.179389/#post-2700178
It's just amazing how nobody mentioned XD. I think MD is fine as it is. It just has become more tactical than physical when it matters. Though personally I prefer MD when they still used the old scoring system.
In my opinion, this year, MD has been very interesting. Last year was very boring, KSS/MGF won most important titles. This year, imop, was much more thrilling, proven by the Thailand open, with Shetty and Rankireddy winning vs Li/Liu.. XD could use more strong duos. I'd like Watanabe/Higashino to win more against the Chinese XD.
Yesterday, in a pre-tournament event held in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan's head coach, Park Joo Bong, declared that Bird Japan's goal at the WC is to exceed last year's number of medals, i.e., Japan will be aiming to win at least seven medals. I will have to check the draw, but is this a feasible objective?
Speaking of that, did he really aimed to exceed the last year's number of medal? What about gold medal ones? Last year, Japan won two. If Japan won more medals than last year, but only win one gold, or worse, none, will PJB really satisfied for that?
I would say the new scoring system emphasizes on risk taking especially in MD where its fast and furious. Thought i'm not sure if MD is less competitive than those days as a WHOLE, the top 20 in MD is the most competitive ever bar Minions that have been WR1 for total 2 years now (but its the same for MS/WS or XD) even during LCW and LD era it has always been Lcw that is number 1. XD is going downhill.. the big Four era is gone,, the worst is the score is not exciting anymore.
Yep, he aims to supersede the total number of medals; the colours weren't specified. Incidentally, last year it was two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes. I don't know what will satisfy PJB. I get the impression that this year's WC is being viewed as a testing ground for the all-important 2020 Tokyo Olympics, nothing less and nothing more.