too bad his world ranking is too high and he is forced to play as 1st singles... unless his ranking drop rapidly...
I honestly don't know what to think about LCW's decision to postpone his retirement. It's good and bad at the same time but I have a feeling that this is gonna be ugly for him. It's good because, of course, many badminton fans love to watch him play and and he is one of the bests, if not the best, MS badminton player who is currently active. Postponing his retirement also gives many young MS players a chance to play against him and to gain more experience. On the other hand, it's bad because I think the fact that he did not win any major tittle is haunting him. The explanation he made about how the sport minister persuaded him is just straight up excuse, I don't believe it. I believe that he decided to stay because it is haunting him and he just cannot give up like this. He probably is thinking "I can do this, just one win, I can't give up like this". He hopes that he will eventually win if he can stick around for some more time. I personally think that it's bad for him. He can be the best right now, but there is still Chen Long and of course, Lin Dan. He is not young anymore, he cannot play like this forever or even just few more years. Some young talents can just appear along the way. Or it would be even worse when he become older and can't physically keep up with the younger players, especially with his style. I rather see him retire now, when he still is the almost unbeatable LCW than seeing him retiring few years later and be beaten by a whole bunch of players. It would still kind of be ok if he can win a major between now and then, but what if he won't? Wouldn't it like rubbing salt on an open wound?
^ Have you seen his most recent outings at All England and India Open, especially against CL? He has made some significant improvements to his game. Especially net play, deceptive shots, variations in smash power and angles, etc. Imo if he continues to play like this, he has no reason to retire yet.
RED ALERT: LCW's winning streak ends as lost to INA's Simon Santoso (he's back!!) at Singapore Open SS 2014 in score 15-21 10-21...!!
latuk 31 liaw... still can win back2back Super series finale ??? maybe its time to limit participation to 1ss per mth
[h=2]Simon upsets Chong Wei to bag Singapore Open title[/h]KUALA LUMPUR: This must have hurt really bad. World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei suffered a huge blow to his morale after a crushing 15-21, 10-21 loss to qualifier Simon Santoso of Indonesia in a 48-minute men’s singles final of the Singapore Open. “Simon played so well. I could do nothing to stop him. I don’t mind losing but not by playing a game like this ... there were just so many mistakes,” said top seed Chong Wei after Sunday’s title match. “I was hoping to turn things around in the second game but he left me quite far behind. I lost focus and could not control the shuttle too.” The defeat to a rejuvenated Simon – Chong Wei’s first in almost five years – dashed his plan of winning a second Singapore Open title. Ironically, Chong Wei won his maiden Singapore Open crown in 2008 with a victory over Simon in the final at the same venue. Chong Wei’s meltdown was a surprise considering the Malaysian had enjoyed a blistering run since the start of the season, having won three Superseries titles – the Malaysian Open, All-England and last week’s Indian Open. Even in his defeat to China’s Chen Long in the final of the Korean Open in January, the Malaysian had put up a class act. On Sunday, though, the 28-year-old Simon gave Chong Wei a taste of his own medicine by dominating the match with sheer confidence and brilliant court craft. The opening game saw Simon taking a 7-4 lead before Chong Wei drew level. Everyone was expecting Chong Wei to turn on his power at this stage and romp home, but Simon obviously didn’t read the script. He kept pushing and cornering Chong Wei into all sorts of trouble to take the opener. It seemed all over for Chong Wei when Simon marched to a comfortable 9-3 lead in the second game. Chong Wei, however, was not ready to throw in the towel yet, narrowing the gap to 10-12. But all hopes of an amazing comeback vanished when a pumped-up Simon kept producing even more impressive moves to walk home with his third career Superseries title. Chong Wei, a winner of 54 Superseries titles, admitted that Simon, who was once ranked No. 3 in the world, had transformed himself into a better player. “He has changed his style of play but, I think, the key to his victory was his patience. I have played against him many times but, today he displayed a higher level of quality in his game,” said Chong Wei, who now holds a 9-2 record against the Indonesian. Simon, who turned professional this year, is returning from a nagging back injury but has shown great improvement of late. Prior to the Singapore Open, he had marked his comeback by winning the Malaysian Open GP Gold in Pasir Gudang last month. The 31-year-old Chong Wei, whose son Kingston celebrated his first birthday on Saturday, is ready to move on. “I accept this defeat but I have to move on as there are many major events coming up. My focus now will be on the team’s preparation for the Thomas Cup Finals,” said Chong Wei, who has reached 83 finals in his career so far.
Well it's not the first time LCW has been implicated in such accusations... we even lost a once famous bcer X Ball from that incident... was it indonesia open?
If you watched the match, it's clear that such allegations won't hold up. Clearly, Chong Wei was outplayed by someone who was in absolutely top form. A thrown match doesn't look anything like this! All credit to Simon Santoso.
C'mon Simon played well. He changed his game and caught LCW off guard . He thought he was playing the old Simon. LCW was tired too. It showed the entire week. Cant play back to back anymore. Should rest more. CHina was wise to rest CL and probably back to the drawing board to iron out the weaknesses.
YES all credit to Simon.. He force LCW making all those unforce errors as well... Thats why he lost... Happy family day at Spore The END of stories...
[h=2]Chong Wei believes Lin Dan will keep him decent[/h]BY RAJES PAUL Friendly rivalry. Lee Chong Wei (left), seen here at the World Championships in China last year, welcomes his badminton arch-nemesis Lin Dan of China back to competition since August last year. - Filepic [TABLE] [TR] [TD][TABLE] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD]Email [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD][TABLE] [TR] [TD="class: gig-button-td"][TABLE] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD]Facebook [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD]6[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] KUALA LUMPUR: The return of China’s Lin Dan is the perfect tonic for world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei (pic). Chong Wei said that Lin Dan’s re-emergence after almost eight months is good for the sport and that it would only motivate him to raise his game. “I welcome his return. His presence will keep me on my toes. It will push me to train even harder. He is a strong opponent and I want to remain as his main challenger,” said Chong Wei. Two-time Olympic Games champion Lin Dan made a successful comeback last week when he nailed the China Masters Grand Prix Gold title to jump 19 rungs from No. 104 to No. 83 in the world rankings. And he is set to nick his second title at the ongoing Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) in Gimcheon, South Korea. The back-to-back GP Gold and ABC are his first two tournaments since winning his fifth world title last August in Guangzhou by beating Chong Wei in the final. Chong Wei said that Lin Dan’s return and his own decision to stay until the 2016 Olympic Games would be good for badminton fans. “I need to stay motivated until the 2016 London Olympic Games and Lin Dan’s return has given me a good reason to do so. I look forward to duelling against him and I’m sure it will excite the fans as well,” said Chong Wei. The fans will be more than eager to see a re-match between Chong Wei and Lin Dan at the World Championships in Copenhagen in August. Such a scenario is possible if Badminton World Federation (BWF) award a wildcard to Lin Dan for the world meet. Based on Friday’s World Championships qualifiers’ list released by BWF, Lin Dan did not make the cut. The top three representatives from China are Chen Long, Du Pengyu and Wang Zhengming. Malaysia will have a smaller number of qualifiers for the world meet this year. In women’s singles, former international and world No. 78 Sannatasah Saniru failed to make the cut although she is in the top 150 standing because the quota of 48 players has been filled. Malaysia will have three pairs – Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong, Lim Khim Wah-Goh V Shem and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong – in the men’s doubles but Kien Keat has left the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
