My friends, when your debates devolve into "a question of form"--it is no longer a debate, but the very reason why we watch spectator sports at all... Anyway, people musing about "if only XYZ of old would show up" should generally be left to their musings...
On the long term perhaps CM stands better chance to dominate then NO, as NO's style of play is so demanding. But then Hirose maintained her level quite to the last moments of her career
What an intense day!! A lot of long, close matches with quite a few upsets. The day ended very disappointing for me. Zwiebler gave away his two match points, suddenly going for winners where he shouldn't... Also Shin / Jung lost again against a top 4 pair. I always enjoy them, but they can't maintain their intensity through the whole match. Lin Dan is freaking unbelievable, I could feel his intensity beginning from game 2. Sad, Momota lost, the ms lost something... Houwei running like hell, but I couldn't enjoy his style :/ Ofc a great chance for the likes of vittinghus or tian and song but it's not near as exciting as it is with lcw, cl or Momota imo. Russians played an amazing match and deserve their semifinal spot. They will trouble the Koreans tomorrow. They don't like to play Europeans it seems. Overall the hall seems quite slow, big smashers like yys, fh, tbh or gvs don't get shuttles on the floor it seemed...
Exciting line-up for today Upsets make the AE more exciting. With the departure of top stars like LCW (MAS), KM (JPN), MA/HS (INA), JOJ and VA (DEN) and CL, FHF/ZN, WYH (CHN) some of the hot favourites still remain in contention. Many will be looking to LD, CM, LYD/YYS, ZN/ZYL and the Luo sisters to win and enter tomorrow's finals. However, China remains the dominant nation in badminton with the most number of representatives in today's Semis: CHN (7) JPN (3) DEN (3) and the rest with only ONE representative: KOR ENG RUS MAS SPN INA and TPE A pity that giant-killer of LCW, IND did not make it today. And THA with so many promising women talents also fell by the wayside. But I'm happy to see the Adcocks representing England in what is essentially a world championship (the AE) long ago when badminton was in its infancy and England took the initiative of hosting this international open for other countries to participate. All thanks to England! Let's enjoy today's semis.
Xue Song is so great! He is really tiny and very light weight, his fitness level is Amazing and he moves great. In G2 after having saved 4 gamepoints to make it 20-20 he had a very questionable linecall against him at his own baseline and then at 21-21 he gets service fault. But even after losing G2 he still could run away with G3 and win. In the XD with Fischer and Pederson vs CHN DEN flick serve never gets faulted but CHN flick serve got faulted all the time, I cannot Believe that all the DEN flick serve is legal and all CHN flick serve not legal, it smells fishy
Also Lin Dan played really great, at least after he found his right gear after G1, perfect Control and precision to beat Jorgensen.
Do you think your post has any association or criticism to my post?sorry but I found it irrelevant? Just one line on SN and others on the WS and last Lara on TTY's! Nothing about the match, nor about SN's style of play!
Nah, you didn't got his pt! As far as I know he is a huge NO fan plus he's almost correct, if only you watched CM playing RI yesterday! She has all the capabilities to thrash even a player of NO's calibre! She has fresher legs than NO plus a better smash! CM wasn't at her best in Dubai she lost to SN(who herself was suffering from ailments) NO has quite good chances but this is SF she must be a bit tired! Her style is demanding and CM doesn't let you settle down! I'd the same CM(as of yesterday) step on the court I am afraid she'll march in yet another finale
Goh and Tan are certainly a great credit to MAS, being MAS's sole survival of this AE to the semis, but to associate them with LCW and his "bag of tricks", I'm afraid I can't understand. They are from different disciplines. And I'm not sure they belong to the new class as the Zulkifflis, who can't even make it to this AE. Goh and Tan are certainly above the ZZs. And I wouldn't call GJW great as she is essentially a 'junior' player as of now. Better not be big-headed like the WJC ZZ, who disappeared from the radar screen when 'promoted' to the senior level. Unlike his WJC runner-up VA, who is now in the top-ten senior world ranking, ZZ is still struggling to make an impact at the world stage. The criticism is justified.
Well represented uncle Loh! I personally couldn't make sense of many of those sentences + his referrings to WSX
