This year's event, they had become even more strict when trying to catch people taking pictures. I had to move away from my originally assigned seats to somewhere more secluded and higher up - close to where the teams set up their own coaching cameras .....
Luckily the venue was far from full, possibly because we had already run out of Japanese cuties by this time. Even delicate skinned Koreans favoured by Madbad are in short supply.
Of course the local crowd did get bigger to support their Team GB XD pairs against Malaysian and Indonesian opposition. But surely, they couldn't possibly beat smaller but more, ahem, organized and experienced crowd support from both countries. The Malaysians came down in droves to drive Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying to a historic first against the World Championships runnersup, and then combined with Indonesian supporters with Indonesians taking the lead under shouts of "In-do-ne-sia!" to drive away Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork.
But first, the matches on the court not televised live:
Xu Chen/Ma Jin vs the Russians was the makings of a potential thriller. The Russians are indeed very gifted in XD and Valerie Sorokina could more than match up to Ma Jin. The only advantage the Chinese had is mobility, or rather, lack of mobility of the towering Nikolaenko. Still it did not stop the Russians from giving them anxious moments, coming back from the dead to 18-18 in the 1st game and running neck and neck until 19-19 in the 2nd before surrendering.
Next came Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei against the tall Danes with the backing of the most organised supporting crowd. By all accounts the Danes could and should have done better than they did, given their superiority in firepower. But Pedersen was completely caught on the diagonal counterattack almost all the time. Almost like one doubles pair playing against two singles players.
Then came the small and energetic Tai Tzu Ying against the petite Sung Ji Hyun. It was obvious that Tai came with too much pent up energy, managing to blow up 4 gamepoints to lose the 1st game. Didn't matter much though, by game 2 Ms Sung had shown her limited gas tank and could not respond fully after the midgame break. And it became an almost total collapse in the third, as Sung started dozing and finding herself in a 7 point hole. And that hole could not be covered.
Lee Hyun Il vs Daren Liew was a reasonable entertaining match. Daren obviously worked hard to try and upset the old Korean warhorse, but never managed to take the lead other than the initial stage of game 2. At age 31, the Korean is much fitter, and more importantly, very smart and pushing the shuttle to the back boundaries, forcing Daren to deplete his energies to scurry back. It would be a fresh LHI against LCW matchup in the semifinals.
Wang Shixian vs Jiang Yanjao - the winner was pretty much known from the first rally of the match. Just going through the motions ........
Delicate skinned Koreans came out next against fast improving HK girls. Koreans were quite fortunate that Poon and Tse took a lot of time to warm up. Yup, they only got warm at 5-0 down in the 2nd game. And from then onwards, we got to see a much better spectacle right down to the wire .......
Hashimoto and Hirata got revenge on the Malaysian Super Series winners in 3 games. Hashimoto especially was very fast and clinical, testament to the tongue lashings he endured 2 months ago after that unexpected defeat to the same TPE pair.
Tago vs Chen Long is among the best 2 matches of the day, sharing primetime slot with Wang Yihan vs Tine Baun. Tago kept his speed high throughout the match, but a lack of belief in himself cost him the first game when he failed to convert all three gamepoints. Coach Keita Matsuda was seen gesticulating and was probably shouting expletives when Tago let a defensive block get too loose, gleefully pounced by Chen Long. Most of the crowd thought that Tago had lost it then and there, some of them going out of the arena to find food.
Those who stayed were treated to the typical Japanese warrior code. It did not seem apparent at first when Tago took a small lead going to the break. But when he sliced off 4 more pts almost immediately afterwards, Chen Long let the game go. Game 3 followed almost the same script as before, and Chen Long could only get to 12-17 before capitulation and the white flag.
Didn't get to see the last 2 matches, my dinner was getting too delayed.
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poor defense lack of stamina what else ....
