it's over for tty. something is wrong with her knee, even gill & steen notice that let's just hope akane can contain marin tomorrow. need some of her retrieving skills from today to frustate marin tomorrow
Apparently, many of the top contenders are not in their best shape at the All England and that with the Paris Olympics just five months away. And there's also the Thomas And Uber Cups at the end of next month, a tournament that a number of countries, particularly, China, the host country, takes very seriously, more so than the AE (the so-called mini-WC, which appears to lose more luster as the decades go by). Perhaps that explains why some of the top players seem careful not to overstretch themselves here.
Easy win for ZSW/HYQ. i feel like it was all planned to help the winners conserve energy for the final.
Actually besides China as its on home soil, im not sure any other countries plan to go all out for Thomas Cup this year with the Olympic so close. All England this year was pretty lackluster that’s for sure. Even French open last week was better in some sense
Rare occasion when Fajar Rian overcame a mountain to win G2 and wrap the match… so they can redeem the french open failure last week. The real and final battle will be tomorrow vs aaron chia/soh woo yik; this will be a good weekend for Indonesians in general
Does this Thomas/Uber Cups count toward Olympic Qualification? Correct me if I'm wrong but I did not see it listed under the World Ranking Points nor does it have $$$ prize.
Since Indonesia open, Singapore open etc do not count towards Olympic qualification and the dates are so near to the actual Olympics, it might turn out like the All England again..
will MAS will able to win the AE mens double title tonight as last won on year 2007 by Koo/Tan, or will be like 2011 & 2019, as a runner-up instead…
I didn't get to watch the last match yesterday but glad fajar/rian won. they've been struggling with their form for almost a year now and here they are, back to the AE final. Aaron/soh vs fajar/rian. the classic INA VS MAS battle. should be good
asy & tty has admitted that they're carrying some type of injuries in this tournament. i believe it was the case with cyf & hbj too
The big issue, and the reason badminton will never get bigger, is there is no mechanism to challenge or request a review of the umpires call. If there is no way to question this, like when an umpire says it touched the ground, it’s over. They should be able to challenge for a let at least, Hawkeye would be able to determine this. There is no way prize money will increase to a livable major sport standard if there is no checks and balances at this point, every major sport has it. But as long as the runner prizes for big tournaments are the same as Showing up for the first round at Wimbledon, it won’t matter. The chair umpire as the final say without a review process is really just saying the sport isn’t serious enough to be taken seriously on a modern professional level. They can challenge line calls, great. But there should be a mechanism to call the court referee, in a case where a fault was inappropriately called, it’s a let. If it wasn’t called and it was a fault then the point is over. There must be a review process. But no player would accept with out review if the quarters vs semis was $300k or runner up vs winner was $1-1.5m. so wrong or not, he wanted a referee. At that point in the match, it should be automatic if it is at all questionable.
