IMHO THW hasnt made much headway since the Australian open that he won. Either his coach should be changed or he should slowly make way for the youngsters. Ok Eric Pang played well but THW should have been able to handle that. He has not performed as expected.
The huge upset so far, stunned the top-seed CHN WD in straight-games, well done! It seemed she's fatigue and produced series of uncharacteristic errors in game 2, she controlled the match until 17-7 position and then Yip PY clawed back to close the gap. A convincing scoreline, next Srikanth will be another tough test for Chen Long. Negative trend by Tian HW, looks like he's just an ordinary player... It makes me wonder too...
I think China is looking towards the future too. They probably don't place that much importance on this WC and prefer to expose WZM and THW to high pressure tournaments.
Not sure if anyone has discussed, but do you see the Li-ning court mart is so slippery? I saw multiple occasions that players slip when approaching the shuttle. I heard yesterday Carolina Marin twisted her ankle. LCW and Lee Don Keun also slipped on some occasions during their match.
Which Danes are you thinking about? The world rankings basically places the best players (one seed every 4 entries), the draw is only for non-seeds (17+), and draw between the layers of the seeds (top 4 never clash before semis, etc.). In mens singles, I think CL got the best "draw". He would face seed 16 in 3rd round, seed 7 in 4th, and seed 4 in the semi. Couldn't ask for a better draw than that, and to top it off, seed 4 pulls out after the draw is published. (Leaving seed 5 instead). For JOJ also got a good draw: seeds 15, 8 and then seed 1 in the semi. Seed 8 pulls out of the tournament, leaving seed 14 instead. LCW's draw: seeds 12, 6 and 3. But with seed 12 out, he will face an unseeded player in the 3rd round. Looking at the world rankings and current forms, you have CL and LCW in each half, and only two things matters for them: 1) don't draw JOJ in the semi. 2) get some easy first rounds to preserve energy for the tough matches later on. CL won that draw. By the way, anyone think JOJ will pass CH in the world rankings soon? Maybe after this weekend?
The only real bomb in these draws, would be if Lin Dan had participated, because of his (at the time) low world ranking. Getting him in "the other half" would have been by far the most important thing in the draw.
They hardly even break a sweat and are whisked into the round of 16 like vampires of the night: 1. Jan O Jorgensen [DEN] - Maxime Moreels [BEL] (21-15 21-11), Eetu Heino [FIN] (21-9 21-17) & Tien Chen Chou [TPE] next. 2. Viktor Axelsen - Henri Hurskainen [SWE] (21-14 21-15) & Erik Meijs [NED] (21-9 21-10) 3. Hans-Kristian Vittinghus - Jen Hao Hsu [TPE] (21-17 21-11) & Yuhan Tan [BEL] (21-18 21-15) 4. Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen - Jacco Arends/Selena Piek [NED] (21-13 21-19) & faces Maneepong Jongjit/Sapsiree Taerattanachai [16] [THA] next. 5. Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl - Puttita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai [THA] (21-12 21-16) 6. Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen - Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Chayut Triyachart [SIN] (21-8 21-16) & faces Michael Fuchs/Johannes Schoettler [GER] next. 7. Even for Line Damkjaer Kruse/Marie Roepke - Vivian Hoo/Khe Wei Woon [MAS] (21-16 11-21 21-10) & Anggia Shitta Awanda/Della Destiara Haris [INA] next. No tough opponents from China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia or Malaysia so far (except for Line/Marie whose both opponents are lesser knowns) but mostly from Europe - simple as a pimple.
Dont think LCW needs to be bothered by it....if they are in shape, LCW, LD, CL are just 2-3 levels above Zwiebler. He is a fighter, but he lacks attacking power and finesse. Playing rubber wall to those guys won't get you good results....just ask NTM