well, I've misspredicted 2 matches, unfortunate that Andre lost, he is yet to prove that he deserve to be titled as Menteri Muda "young minister", but respect for what he has shown so far, about ALL KOR MD final, I didn't really sure about prediction, never heard them all..congrats for all champs , INDONESIA JAYA
Syabas, Roslin won his first title since Japan Open 2001. Congratulations. Andre has also been doing well by upsetting the top seed Chen Yu in QF.
Congratulation,....to Roslin ....who have showed tremendous fighting spirit in this tounament....proud of U.....common Hafiz....Your elder bro. can do it socan U brace up....in China OPen...
Nitya is daughter of former National Soccer from Papua, Panus Korwa. Also Yulianti was born in 1987 (20 years old)
Wow, a soccer to badminton family... Wow, that's interesting... Note: Nitya's former partner Nadia is the daughter of Eli Idris, a famous INA soccer player in the 1980s... I saw Eli watching Nadia during the Indonesian Superliga Badminton in July...
abit off topic eli idris... hmm i remember him.. he was a member of PPD (pra piala dunia) 1986 ina team coached by sinyo aliandoe.. indonesia almost qualified to worldcup 1986 but failed becos south korea beat indonesia in final playoff group
Is he getting all the help and resorce from BAM ? Revival of the oldies !!!!!! Get him and WCH all the help, since we cannot depend on the young Hafiz for now. Hope Misbun can motivate Hafiz into a calibre player like LCW.
Hafiz did play well in the last French Open. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side. But his style is completely different and I think he would have an equal chance as the other in the coming China open. I believe Misbun is a major favor in his game improvement.
The motivation theory should apply here. He must be short of money now that he has not won for such a long time. I think, if anything, that should be enough incentive, not to mention personal pride and fame (if that is possible).
Frankly, I think it will be very difficult for both Roslin and WCH to make an impact in Beijing Olympics 2008, assuming they qualify in the first place. For the world's highest ranked players, the one who will win will be the one who is able to peak at the right time, barring any unforeseen event just before and during the Olympics. A little bit of luck like an easier draw, would help. So for such players, they must now have a training schedule that will bring them to peak condition during that time, not way before even when they win major titles.
Yes two China SS, one the China Masters, which was held in July and now the forthcoing China Open, following closely by the Hongkong Open towards end Nov. So all in all China is a great promoter of the sport and if you include Hongkong and Macau, it will be even greater! Is that one reason why China players have been winning more major titles than the other world badminton powers? "The more you give, the more you receive!"
Vietnam Open Grand Prix: Roslin Takes First Title in Six Years In a thrilling final, Muhd Roslin Hashim (pictured) beat rising Indonesian star Andre Kurniawan Tedjono to win his first title since the 2001 Japan Open. Indonesia's Yulianti made sure that her country was the biggest winner on the day, though, taking gold in mixed and women's doubles, leaving Chau Hoi Wah of Hong Kong to cherish her two silvers. China and Korea, as expected, picked up one gold each in their respective fortes. By Don Hearn. Photos: Badmintonphoto.com (Archives) The first two matches went very quickly. Tantowi Akhmad and Yulianti took Chau Hoi Wah / Hui Wai Ho to school, winning the mixed doubles 21-11, 21-13. Not to be outdone, China's Zhu Jingjing did an even better job of dominating Hirayama Yu of Japan, shutting her down 21-11, 21-11. Then it was time for Yulianti to face off for a second time against Hong Kong's Chau Hoi Wah. Yulianti and Nathalia Poluakan got off to a good start, mostly through their success in deceiving the Hong Kong pair. Once Chau and partner Koon Wai Chee caught on, however, things got very interesting. The Hong Kong pair soon figured out that they could be comfortable simply lifting the shuttle and depending on their excellent defense. Try as they might, the Indonesian women just could not smash their way to a point and their superb drops weren't fooling their opponents, who knew the Indonesians would have to resort to changing the pace. Nathalia Poluakan finally provided the exception to the rule with a string of 5 powerful smashes to nab the tying point at 18-all. From then on, the Indonesians benefitted from 3 straight errors by the Hong Kong pair to win 21-19. In the second game, the Indonesians were much more in control. They left their opponents flat-footed on a remarkable number of occasions with their deft, soft pushes and drop shots. Poluakan/Yulianti finished it 21-15 on their first match point opportunity. More Vietnamese Silver for Kang and Cho Korea came only at half-strength to this tournament, with no women's doubles players to help repeat last year's all-Korean finals in mixed and women's doubles. At the start of the day, their hopes of taking another four golds like in 2006 had already long since been dashed but an all-Korean final did assure them of a repeat gold medal result in the men's doubles. The match was dominated start to finish by Ko Sung-hyun and Kwun Yi-goo. Although the two are among the best doubles players in Korea, they have very little international experience on the senior circuit, their best performance to date being a quarter-final finish at the World University Games in Bangkok this summer. Their opponents were Kang Myeong-won and Cho Gun-woo, who had each already been a runner-up in Vietnam in the last year: Kang in the mixed doubles here at the Vietnam Open last November and Cho in men's doubles at the Vietnam Challenge in May. In fact, Kang really is Mr. Runner-up as he has finished second in the last two Korean National Championships as well. Ko/Kwun focussed their attacks on 19-year-old Cho and quickly finished off a 21-17, 21-12 win, to force their compatriots to once again only partially ascend the podium. Grace under Pressure It was the third meeting in six months for Muhd Roslin Hashim of Malaysia and Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia. Their first came back in May when Roslin, desperate for Olympic qualifying points after having being excluded from two Super Series events, flew to New Zealand in the hopes of at least taking a Grand Prix title as consolation. Tedjono thwarted those plans by beating Roslin in straight games in the quarter-finals. Although Roslin regained some dignity by defeating Tedjono the following week, in Vietnam, today in Hanoi was much bigger. It was Roslin's big chance to finally take a title. He made it to three finals last year but settled for silver all three times. Roslin started very strong, showing his trademark defensive skills and all the poise and consistency one would expect of a veteran of his stature. After finishing the first game by an easy 21-12, he was finally put to the test by the young Indonesian in the second. Tedjono led throughout the match and opened up an 17-8 lead to assure the crowd that they would finally see a match go to three games on this finals day. However, sitting on an 18-11 lead, Tedjono made four straight errors to allow Rosling to narrow the score to 15-18. Roslin finally earned a point with a smash to the Indonesian's body to make it 16-18 and he followed up by finally tying the game at 19-all. More errors by Tedjono gave Roslin two match points, both of which the Indonesian saved with strong smashes down the forehand sideline. Tedjono had a game point at 22-all but Roslin kept his cool and earned his third match point but blew the chance by making an error of his own. Tedjono made two more embarassing errors, though, to hand the Malaysian veteran the 25-23 win. The patience and perseverance Roslin showed in his late comeback was nothing, though, compared to the fortitude he has shown over the last six years since his Japan Open win of 2001. After over 60 tournaments in those years and 4 finals in the last 15 months, the Malaysian was finally able to taste the sweetness of victory
I think China should only have 1 SS and Germany should have an SS since they lost out (to France?) in their bid. But do you notice a trend since SS this year? CHN has been losing more major titles to non-CHN...In 2006, LD had no problem winning 3 in a row. Has this happened this year? What do you think this indicates to you?
Yes, I always thought Germany should have the honour since they are among the best in Europe. But as someone has pointed out, money makes the world go round and if the German promoters are not able to get sponsors, then it is just too bad! Yes I also agree that China seems not to be winning more titles this year than she was used to although I don't have time to check out the numbers. Their top men and even their top women players, hitherto almost invincible, have been beaten by other Asian and even European players on a more regular basis. It could not be that China's standards have fallen so drastically, although age has caught up a bit for some of their players, but more realistically, European and other Asian players have made special efforts at improving themselves. But there will continue to be ups and downs for countries and players. There was a time when Indonesia got nothing in their own backyard and at this year's WC, host Malaysia was totally disappointed as well. So China must now lower its ambitions a bit although one could not help but marvel at the big talent pool at her disposal. Already their second stringers like Zhu Lin and her contemporaries are making waves at the world stage.
