You can also question Axelsen being "tired" by comparing with other badminton players. LCW for instance could easily win 2 SS titles in 2 weeks until he was 30+something years old. Seo Seung Jae who plays both MD and XD can win 2x WC in 1 week, then after a week plays CHN open gets 1 gold and a semifinal.
Just watched bits of the VA match. Honestly, cannot see how you can possibly say it is match fixing and to just suggest that if VA loses then it is match fixing is just stupid. LCH played excellent, took every chance he had without exception. VA looked mentally and physically exhausted, more unforced errors than usual but still very frustrated with himself if making an error. Please do not make these accusations without proof again in a public forum.
Yeah! Grind! Have you ever seen them panting and asking the referee to rest after rallies ? Have you ever heard: "on court, please" from tennis umpire ? Have you ever seen a tennis player lying on the court breathing heavily? I see them spending half their time choosing balls, eating bananas, wiping their faces and drinking beer.
...and they also get a break after every 2 games during a set, which can be as short as 8 quick points or, in the case of mens singles @ wimbeldon, 8 aces. imagine that in badminton... 4 quick strokes by each player, no running, and it's break time!
yes to the Umpire's mistake. My kid was watching and told me about it. She said Zilberman seemed not to notice at all. BWF officials aren't micromanaging the games. There's a row of them sitting at a table with various different functions. Tournament referee oversees four courts at the same time so can't see every single incident. No doubt it will come up for review, especially at this level of tournament .
I watched the match and I couldn't see any deliberate / specific areas of where the match was fixed. The only thing I could see was Axelsen being a bit sloppy at the end but that's probably because he was either tired or resigned to the fact that he was so far behind already. It's definitely nothing in contrast to say, Lin Dan vs Chen Jin at the 2008 All England Open final - now THAT was definitely a candidate for match fixing. It's a public forum and therefore public views are allowed.
If the tournament called him asking why he lost like this then its every bit of match fixing and he needs to explain it. Not saying he asked someone to buy against him but for me neutral and if i bet on Axelsen and he lost like this, to player that we never heard of. All in all, i would say this is the most shocking results in badminton Superseries. Not sure what is Axelsen thinking there. There was altercations with BWF months back in twitter from Axelsen and i guess this is F U to BWF face but its super unprofessional from him. This is the reason why badminon arent taken seriously. When people dont take games seriously, its just like amateur sport.
Axelsen showing the abuse he got in Twitter half hour ago. every dirty word comes flying. I think someone lost the 1.01 bet and lost lots of money.
Where are you getting this "fact" from? I have heard of comparisons between tennis matches and badminton matches, e.g. in distance covered, that were not in favour of tennis. Also, as someone else mentioned, there is often a day's rest between matches, and they get plenty of minute long breaks all the time between games. On the VA topic. - Anyone who speculates that VA played not to win, doesn't know him at all. And you probably haven't done the cost/benefit analysis of him doing that. - I am surprised VA didn't withdraw. My best guess is that he wanted to challenge himself / that he "hoped" he was ready for two weeks in a row. Maybe it was a factor that has has not won in Hong Kong or that many players prepare for Asian Games. Maybe he wanted to give it a shot because of WTF qual or OG qual. - I don't think there is a fine at the Super 500 level for not entering (please correct me if I am wrong), but if there is, VA would likely just take it. - Comparison with LCW or Seo: Just because a few extraordinary players have been able to do X once in a while, doesn't mean that any other extraordinary player "should" be able to do X all the time; VA has also won two weeks in a row in the past (+ reaching the final three weeks in a row). Besides, Seo is a doubles player and LCW's weight was like 2/3 that of VA. There are many reasons why badminton as a sport is where it is. A high ranked player losing to a low ranked player every once in a while isn't one of them.
Yamaguchi wants to lose, but Gilmour didn't want to win. A Joke. Someone said bad word to Viktor. I think that this person bet 1 million for Viktor in the first round.
