I don't know the players of the past, but currently anyone can see that Peter Gade has true love for the game. While having a wife and 2 kids I've never heard of him talking about retirement from professional badminton, like LD. He is 34 and still consistently making it to the quarter finals of every tournament he attended this year and won the European Championships. When I watch him play with LCW and LD you can tell they still take him seriously. Peter Gade is awesome to watch with his attacking style. Is there anyone else that has made the top 10 in any category that has shown as much love for the game? Taufik Hidayat is a close second.
TH and his willingnes to promote badminton all over the world. I am not a big fans of him eventhough he is my fellow contryman, but watching his dedication and what he have done to INA and world's badminton, he is the one
I still vote for Peter Gade. He is the real badminton ambassador. Simply impressed by his passion in badminton game. He is awesome to watch, take the game seriously and still remain one of the top players at the age of 34.
Gade and Taufik should come to the U.S. Open and/or even the Canada Open this yr, if they have shown the most love for baddy..let's show some love for the N.American baddy followers..
TH @ US Open TH was at the US open in 2009. I have friends that took a picture with him. I don't think Peter Gade has been to the US Open before.
It may not be too recent but Peter Gade has played in the US Open before. He played in the 1997 US Open and lost in the finals to fellow country man Poul-Enik Hoyer. He also played in the 2002 US Open where he won the title. http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/s...4D2078C-9155-42E5-A7B3-41E19C03DC10&player=34 (1997 US Open) http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/s...C00022A-35BB-4045-AA3C-3BB26F09315F&player=21 (2002 US Open) Would be great if he came over to North America again sometime in the near future, maybe with olympic qualification year maybe he will make the trip to Canadian Open and/or US Open one could only hope.
TH did come to the U.S. Open and Canada Open before & PG came to the U.S. Open before, but i'd like to see them come again (to both tourneys), esp. to N.A. region, if they truly have the most love for badminton..
Looking at the list of players in these 2 US Opens, I didn't know that US Open was able to attract so many top players before. I wonder what stopped the top players from coming.
At that time super series events were not implemented (they were launched in 2006 and implemented in 2007 if im not mistaken) so top players had to travel to the highelst level tournaments avilable all over the world. that would be a reason as to why many top players made trips over to north america and even south/centeral american tournaments. if anyone can build on that or has any other answers that would be awesome to know more. so inadvertenly players of the past showed their "dedication" through their travel over to this side of the world for these tourmaments. be that just for the ranking points or for them wanting to well wont know unless ask some of them.
off topic: Re why players like PG traveled and played in the 2002 U.S. Open (which at that time wasn't really a high level tourney~based it on ranking pts awarded and prize money), I believe at that time PG was just recovering from his knee injury/and subsequent knee surgery. IMO, basically he was using the U.S. Open, his first international tourney after the knee surgery & a smaller and perhaps less challenging tourney, more as a jumping board for his return to full time competition, rather than to show "his dedication". As for the launch of the SS events, i believe it was launched in December of 2006 but officially started in 2007.
I partly started this thread out of frustration for of some Chinese players making me feel they really are not trying or don't care about giving a good show of talent. True, Peter Gade was probably not at the US Open 2002 to show dedication, but I've never wondered whether or not Peter Gade is going to show up with a casual indifferent attitude in his game. Even TH has been known to (not often) show lack of effort. A good example would be Lin Dan dropping out 3 games in a row. Then beating LCW in the Korean Open. I know LD is a rare and amazing player, but his sportsmanship is terrible! Maybe, I should have labeled this thread "Which top player has the best sportsmanship?"
I understand many fans are upset by the Chinese players' attitude, not only LD's WO but more importantly the fixed matches like the Zhou Mi - Zhang Ning semis at Athens. But anyway I would still consider their love of the game as second to none because they train so hard. Since their childhood (7 years for most) their world is badminton, badminton and more badminton. Among the Chinese, the one that had the most dedication for the game was Zhang Ning. Players on the team said that they did not like to train in the same time-slot then her because she would criticize anyone showing a bit of laziness. LYB let her play for so long for that reason : she had an influence on the whole team by her dedication. Zhou Mi would also qualify : she found it so hard to let ZN go without a fight in Athens that she quite the CHN team. Her attitude on court since was superb. Fighting for every shuttle, but also displaying humanity.
