Chen Long is incredibly solid. Many say he's much less interesting to watch, but if you're a real badminton fan who can appreciate the real skills, buy a ticket and watch him live in person. It's a wonderful joy.
Great work by CL, setting up his H2H with LCW 6-7 I believe. A really impressive feat especially considering LCW's dominance on the circuit (with the exception of LD)
Congratulations to CL! You are the 2nd player (after Lin Dan) within the past 5 years who is able to beat LCW in 2 games in consecutive meetings!
the weird thing i noted yesterday is how calm he was. i personally think he is calmer than LCW himself. weird, remember it's CL maiden final while it's LCW's 5th.
http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2013/3/11/sports/12821148&sec=sports LCW: “I was just so frustrated as CL kept on retrieving my shots. It was hard to kill his shots too,”
CL played an interesting game. Sometimes he played like LD in the choice of shot making. Then he played his own game. So CL can play two different styles and get away with it. Impressive and he will be a formidable opponent.
Within the first 5minutes of the AE final, I knew what the chinese coaches were doing with CL. They are grooming him to be a right handed LD, and they are doing a damn good job of it. The styles and tactics used by both are scary similar. For whatever reason I was never the biggest CL fan before (I was a WZM fan lol), mainly because I didn't think his style would translate well against top tier players, but over the past ~3years what the chinese coaches have done with him is truly amazing. IMHO, CL has every potential to be just as good or better than LD. As an aside, I believe just like the trend for chinese WS players, the next generation of chinese MS players will be "taller" and more dynamic. There will be less players like CJ and DPY, "runners" who rely on longer rallies and stamina to win matches.
Chen Long was the better player on Sunday. faster, more ferocious (and effective attack), as well as some jawdropping defense that makes me wonder if it was LD at the court. however, despite Lee Chong Wei's credit to his opponent, he looked off his normal form. not playing in top top speed of his former self. whatever the reason is, i don't think Chen Long will get off so easily next time. as for watchability, the relatively bulkier build of Chen Long means that we probably won't see the same amount of dynamics like we see from Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. big boys are just not built for those super fancy looking jumping action that everyone love to see from Lin Dan.
Chen Long played a very solid final at the All England 2013, he made very good choices of shots and he rarely made mistakes. He was very focused and compared to Lee Chong Wei who seemed to slowly lose his confidence during the game, Chen Long knew how to persevere even when Lee Chong Wei was catching up. Chen Long has improved very much overall: very good defense, good footwork and his attack is as always his biggest weapon. I want to see a final between Chen Long and Lin Dan, that would be an awesome match to watch, a rematch with a more focused Chong Wei could also do
It is also my opinion that CL played extremelly well, but that LCW was slow. Beside, we cannot forget how easy it was for LCW to dispose of CL at the olympics. So for me the question remains, for CL, can he follow LD and LCW when the speed is up? We all noticed I beleive how CL's rythm is regular. Can he still defend at a higher pace?
I also think LCW is not at his very best for this match. That is for discussion in another thread. What we have seen is some experimentation by the Chinese coaches. Once they had that breakthrough of Chen Long beating LCW last year, they have worked on that confidence. For the future, the rest of the world is playing catchup. The only weakness looks like that susceptibility to an early round upset.
LCW was indeed not at his best at AE. CL got a heavily bounded right arm also. The BWF head-to-head between the two is now 7-6 in favor of LCW. Yeah, CL may have lucked out the first win on LCW's stomach ache but LCW got most of his wins while LCW as at his prime and CL was learning his way. No matter how you cut it, it is safe to say that CL is now virtually at the same level as LCW. Not better than LCW, but fairly close.
I havent gone through this thread. I m a fan of both CL and LCW. I want to believe LCW is a better player, but I afraid it is otherwise. I am not talking about winning and losing. CL is at more comfort level when both are playing against each other. I always thought CL as an attacking player, but he has one hell of a defence! Something which Du Pengyu achieves with so much jumping around, CL does effortlessly!
A true Champion is born! In Europe and the West, it appears that Chen Long always receives much less media attention and recognition than Lee Chong Wei. During the commentary by Gillain Clark in the recent All-England encounter, one can sense the disdain towards the 24-year old Chinese and her disapproval of yet another Chinese threatening to dominate the Men Singles category on the world stage after toppling the Malaysian World No. 1. This reveals the kind of mentality the West has towards Chinese players like Chen Long and Du Peng Yu. Western fans, enthusiasts and professionals such as Gillian Clark essentially epitomise such a mentality. It is no surprise therefore that during the interview with Chen Long after his disposal of Lee Chong Wei in straight sets (only the other great Lin Dan is capable of such a feat by the way in recent memory), he expressed his gratitude and heartfelt thanks to the Chinese crowd in the arena for their generous support. No other western or Anglo-Saxon badminton fans in the arena shared such generosity as the Chinese fans in their support – why is that? This probably is because everyone takes the Chinese success for granted, and no one bothers to find out or learn about the Chinese players outside their strenuous badminton lives and to humanise them the way Gillian Clark would do for Lee Chong Wei, Peter Gade or Tine Baun. Through western lens, the Chinese are thought to be zombies; taken away from their families at a very young age to training camps and tortured into medal-churning machines. There is evidently a battle of soft power between western democracy and Chinese authoritarian ideologies and mind set. I have seen many interviews of Chen Long and Lin Dan (in Mandarin of course) and I can tell you they are much more spontaneous and intelligent than Lee Chong Wei if not Peter Gade and Tine Baun. Chen Long is the true gentlemen (君子)of the game and everyone can see how apologetic he was throughout the Final even when the linesman and umpire ‘mistakenly’ ruled to Lee’s favour. On the other hand, we see Lee Chong Wei reacting quite theatrically in defiant to calls that the linesman/umpire had ruled against even though slow-motion replays clearly indicated that he was wrong - on numerous occasions. In my view, Chen Long would make a much polished and refined World No. 1 than Lee Chong Wei. I would also say that Chen Long is as respectful of his peers and more graceful in his defeat. The Datuk has had his ego inflated too big and for too long by such western bigots like Gillian Clark.
Those not so receptive to Lin Dan's persona as someone imposing,awesome,imperious on court, finding his indomitable, all-conquering spirit somewhat intimidating - may take more kindly to Chen Long though he is becoming just as formidable on court. But I have no problem with Lin Dan's image and has even called him my Super Hero in badminton. Chen Long is a very nice guy as I see it - boyish,playful, kind of cute, yet gracious, humble and gentlemanly in his demeanour. I recalled his funny,endearing frolic in the Thai Open two years ago after beating Lee Hyun-Il where he suddenly turned to his colleagues in the stands, flipped his racquet as if it's a rifle pointing at them and went 'bang,bang,bang'; I guffawed and almost fell off my chair. On the last two occasions when be overcame Lee CW, i.e. in the HK Open and then the All England, in both the post-match interviews immediately after, he said he treated them as enriching, learning experience.
Thank you for the great post, tsae75. You have just spoken what I came to feel about Jilian Clark but could not express well in recent years of watching badminton games.
Well spoken tsae, but let's not group together everyone from Europe and the West... There are many, that see past the nationality a player is from and don't group every Chinese player together as one. And also many who feels that LCW lately maybe has gotten a bit arrogant(probably because the way so many treat him). But on the topic of Chen Long, he will probably achieve great success if he continues like this. He is probably one of the best players right now to watch if you want to LEARN badminton(the same way I thought Chen Jin was) and it doesn't hurt that he seems so mature and level-headed off the court. Losing big to LCW in the Olympics simply seemed to have helped him. Note: Is it just me or does he respects Lin Dan too much whenever they play? Will we perhaps never see a good match between two before Lin Dan retires completely?
It's not just you. Skills-wise, I feel that there are a number of players who are better than Lin Dan lately (including Chen Long); it's just that they keep losing to him because of this aura that he has. I really hope that they'll eventually be able to shake off that kind of 'deferrent' mentality soon.
The aura came from two Olympics golds and four World Championships, along with the kind of power, skill and determination to gain those glories. You have to earn that over the years. On that front, CL still has some distance to catch LCW, let alone LD.
