Wow, LD lost his form pretty drastically, I wonder why LYB let it happened, it seems like all CHN MS and MD players are going downhill at Japan Open ... is this LYB's strategy? It seems like a very strange strategy. Excellent come back by LCW, who just had a problem at World Championships and now in the final challenging TH, it will be a good match, as it seems like both of them want to prove something, TH seems in good form as well as LCW.
Did you hear what that silly commentator said after LD's loss? She said he's not expected to win because of his WC effort. How then did LD win WC06 and JO06 last year consecutively? And if LD's gonna take it easy between now and OG08, he may not be seeded #1 or even #2. Sign of the times...don't you think so?
Same reason why it is so strange that all popular players lost... for further reasons(excuses), refer to the old "why Taufik lost", "why KKK/TBH lost" threads.
It's not political;it's because their top players are not in good shape and if they were to lose again in TPE07,competition will know they have lost their edge and will have no respect for them in court.Part of CHN players' winning edge is because their opponents think they are 'so good they are hard to beat'.LYB knows the importance 'packaging' is to .his players.Once the packaging is stripped off,opponents will find them 20% easier to defeat.
It seems that for some BCers here it is hard to accept if LD lost...then some gave him excuses...blah..blah..even LD himself did not make any excuses why he lost to LCW as LCW played better....no player in the world is thinking....lets lose this tournament and focus winning the other one..good luck!!...in these days, MS are very competitive...lost is lost...period!! LD is not Superman...we all know that...no excuses please!!
a lot of strange things happening in badminton nowadays. even the top players lose to unseeded ones when they are highly expected to win. "consistency" is a rare trait but i guess this will spell the big difference between winning and going home early . . .
3 WC are gone, MS, WS and MD....tough to maintain high peak after winning WC but XD and WD WC are still in final..lets see!!
ok, i admit to miss out one other minor details (actually just thot of it after i awoke this morning and came here to add this comment but found u caught it already. I forgot to add that LD will play good enough to secure a good seed position going into the 08 OG plus denying TH the 08 AE.
If it's political, why did CHN not withdraw the whole team? Were you around during the SO07 and IO07 tournaments? Both LD and CY were scheduled to play in IO07. However, in SO07,both LD and CY lost to Boonsak for the first time in their meetings. Not only that, both were mentally shaken and LYB knew both were in no position to play well in IO07 ,so both pulled out. Cannot be political in Indonesia , can it? LYB knows the importance of preserving LD's "armour" and will not risk letting LD lose badly two tournaments in a row.
You have much to learn about politics, my friend. That said, we really should stop talking about things that will get this thread locked.
Hmmm... He might / might not win AE next year, but the best player in the world [TH] will win AE before he retires...
To me, LD still has Asian Games & Asian Championship besides Olympic, to catch up in order to complete the Grand Slams collection. Taufik, on the other hand, is just missing an All England title from his collection. That's why Taufik is still the best player so far.
Well said Mr Kwun. LD may appear to be arrogant on court to some but I have yet to hear anything distasteful/disrespectful towards others from his mouth (correct me if I am wrong). BTW, most of the Chinese players went back to their hometown after the WC 07 and training was disrupted. They were not at the physical best and LYB knows that (in case anti-LYB thinks his head will roll after the JO). However we should not take away any credit from LCW, TH and the Danes who deserve credit for their performance and wins.
