Well, don't blame the draw. It's not LCW's fault that Chen Long and Li Dan crashed out after losing to better players.
LCW beat: BL -one of EU better MS WTW -who himself recently beat Chen Long and Wei Nan THW -the grinder CTC -who beat Tanongsak who himself beat CL SYQ -who beat LD
Most importantly, LCW beat his age, his injuries and himself to evolve into the 4th phase of "Shin" Godzilla before Tokyo, I mean, a bunch of a barely-prepared international MS players.... Even if Lin Dan returns next year to take the All England title, he will only be equalling "Shin" LCW's record of being the oldest MS to take an SS title.
the worldwide quality of bwf umpires is pretty dismal. the process to become one takes years & the umpire pays most of their own travel expenses while working their way up to superseries level. you can move up faster, which means it'll cost you more sooner. yup, the current state of competition is exciting to watch. my favorite doubles players to watch are goh v shem for his racket skills & backhand power (both effortless), ks sukamuljo for his flair & kamura/sonoda for their size-to-power ratio and speed. singles fave? tai tzu ying, hands down. deceptively quick foot speed + high level read of opponent during rally + racket skills + shot selection + shot variety = efficiency.
I was there at the AEs on Thursday and Friday and then watch the weekend action at home. I must say it was quite good. Some shocks with the way LD played in the semi final but all the other games were very good. I thoroughly enjoyed the XD final, what a showcase for the sport. End to end and so many exciting and memorable moments. The MS was a one sided affair and I am happy LCW won. He just shows that with great mental toughness and strength you can overcome someone 13 years your junior and win well. The WD and MD was not as exciting as I had hoped but decent matches. Finally I loved the WS final with TTY and RI showing why they both deserved to be there. I was happy RI was there as she beat Marin earlier in the tournament and I cannot stand Marin. TTY showed why she is the current best in the world with all her variations in shots and angles, not to mention her lightning speed. It was a joy to watch. Overall a good AE. Not the best by any means but nice to have so many new faces in the finals. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
going back to the xd final, how slow motion showed the errors of the court officials....i am wondering if the umpire was being "assessed" at that tournament. i have often seen officials have bad-day-in-the-office moments when they are conscious of being (graded) watched. any court officials at the AE care to enlighten us here?
What are you talking about? There is always a panel of "tournament referees" on duty refereeing the umpires, so as to speak-- who do you think the umpires are signalling to, when they raise their hands? However, they will not appear on court or interfere/interrupt play in anyway, unless the players/ coaches signal that they wish to lodge a complaint/ settle a dispute (against the umpire/ opponents/ audience, etc.) with tournament referees-- in any case, in matters of lines call/ service faults/ etc., the tournament referees will usually not overrule the umpire or service/line judges, since they are sitting even further away... E.g. In the case of this AE, if the M'sians do lodge a formal complaint with bwf, then it will be those tournament referees on duty who will be asked to review/ report on the proceedings to bwf. The blurry so-called slow-motion replay of tv footage has never been an acceptable way of making final arbitrations, that's why "hawk-eye" is used... maybe when motion-sensors become fast, accurate, reliable AND cheap enough, we can set down a console on each side of the court and use them for making final arbitrations?