Current All England champions sent packing, not only one but three as Okuhara, Ivanov/Sozonov and Jordan/Susanto were ousted at same stage describe how fierce competition in high-level tournaments. No doubt, as predicted MS two mouth watering clashes are on the way this evening. The Danish #1 Jan O Jorgensen should be extra motivated to take revenge over his AE quarterfinal defeat against Chinese maestro Lin Dan. Both players had light tests to pass early rounds, this is the real battle! On the other last eight tie of bottom half draw, ten-time winner and home darling Lee Chong Wei had two unexpected losing at AE & IND SS will fix his blip and eye semifinal spot here but the young Dane Viktor Axelsen often troubles top ranked players in some tournaments lately, last meeting Lee won three games in French Open last October. It's golden opportunity for Englishman Rajiv Ouseph or Indonesian future star Jonatan Christie to book their first ever semifinal round in Premier event, then one of them will meet Chinese rival in last four, either recent All England runner-up Tian Houwei or defending champion Chen Long. WS category scored three upsets as Li Xuerui, Sung Ji Hyun and Okuhara bit the dust yesterday. Last year winner, Carolina Marin is favoured to tame former world number one Wang Yihan as she did in last three encounters. The 28 years old Wang peak performance seems already over unless she could revive her badminton career. TV court match, Ratchanok Intanon v P.V. Sindhu should be close contest, 2013 World Champion has slight advantage to advance into next stage. Saina Nehwal looked composed how she beat Bae Yeon Ju in last sixteen, a tricky opponent giant-killer Porntip Buranaprasertsuk may derail her mission to go further here. One remaining quarterfinal tie will pit the naturally-gifted Chinese Taipei player, Tai Tzu Ying against another Chinese shuttler, Wang Shixian. It's rarely to see top 8 MD pair fulfill their seeding positions and it happens today, number one seed and strong contender Lee YD/Yoo YS will up against familiar foe Endo/Hayakawa. China best combination, Fu HF/Zhang N have recent China Open winner Kim GJ/Kim SR. On lower half draw, former world champion Ko SH/Shin BC will meet the inconsistent China pair, Chai B/Hong W. Interesting fact that both pairs were pushed into the limit and experienced thrilling second round match to eliminate their rivals. Second seed Ahsan/Setiawan will take on Danish number two Conrad/Kolding who outclassed newly-crowned AE champion Ivanov/Sozonov yesterday. Two quarterfinal matches at top-half draw will contain CHN-JPN WD rivalry, Matsuo/Naito v the Olympic Champion Tian Q/Zhao YL and the in-form Matsutomo/Takahashi v Tang YT/Yu Y. It's still fresh from memory, the world number one outplayed Tang/Yu in All England final rather than tight battle as expected. Korean leading pair, Jung KE/Shin SC once again will take on the dangerous duo, two-time world junior champion Chen QC/Jia YF. 2015 WC bronze medalist, Maheswari/Polii have pretty good chance to nail semifinal ticket against Chang YN/Lee SH. Two-time winner Zhang N/Zhao YL is the only seeded pair remains at upper-half draw as the other three, Jordan/Susanto, Liu C/Bao YX and Xu C/Ma J bid goodbye in this tournament yesterday. The reigning world and Olympic champion Zhang/Zhao are expected to prevail against Singaporean Chrisnanta/Vanessa Neo also home favourite Chan PS/Goh LY have bright prospect to overcome Thai young sensation Dechapol/Taerattanachai. It's too tough to predict the outcome of two remaining quarterfinal matches, 2013 champion Fischer/Pedersen v Ko Sh/Kim HN and second seed Ahmad/Natsir v English married couple Chris-Gabby Adcock.
It's not that LD has not beaten LCW in KL. The 2004 Thomas Cup Qualifier and 2010 Thomas Cup Finals comes to mind ..... And the winds of Malawati Stadium does not provide an advantage to Malaysian players because they hardly ever play in that arena.
Right. I missed that. I was thinking more toward Malaysian Open which is probably one of the few SS level tournament that Lin Dan never managed to bring home.
LCW will be absent in Singapore SS and China Masters GPG and playing again in BAC 2016. Currently LCW is a runner up in Road to Rio ranking. I think LCW will stick into that second Rio's ranking position http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/ranking/category.aspx?id=11000&category=2147 AND he tactically should win here in Malaysia SSP then take a rest 2 weeks from tournament while doing preparation before BAC started.
Not sure I can agree with any of the WS predictions Just goes to show the parity in the discipline right now
Saina showed good calm and composure against bae and is looking better than before in every match she plays, it would be a huge win for her if she manages to beat porntip who herself is on a high from last couple of tournaments.. .should be a good one, I hope wyh silences cm, sindhu might have a chance against ratchanok if it comes to the physical aspect of the game.. .don't know how fresh rats is feeling after last week, wsx should manage to come past tty.
TV matches so appalling.... Absoluite travesty from BW.F yeah I'm sure people rather watch Koreaa WD vs INA.... rather than FHF/ZN vs KSR/KGJ
is it just a case of skewed expectation, or can someone back this up this bias with some proper statistics?
I'd understand if they don't broadcast Chn vs Chn but this a new low.... got LD vs JOJ WYH vs Carolina CB/HW vs SBC/KSH Spain and CHN are the only 2 countries not put on TV court.
LD vs JOJ is a TV court match no matter what the tournament. Last time, in All England, there were like 8-9 disputed line calls that were challenged. It's ridiculous to say the least. Can You imagine Roger Federer not shown on TV court ?
