The title of the thread summed up my feeling (and I believe many other INA and MAS fans too) when I got back to Hong Kong early this morning. There were many surprises and upsets in the China Open Super Series and at the end, five deserved new winners of Super Series title (regardless of the controversies regarding line-calls, withdrawals, etc). In the Men's Singles, which was probably the most debated match, Bao Chunlai is a deserved winner. He played brilliantly in the Semi-Final match against Park Sung Hwan and later in the Final against Lee Chong Wei. I thought Lee Chong Wei would win yesterday's match, however, Bao showed that he was determined to get rid of the "Mr Runners-Up" by playing aggressively. The line-calls were unnecessary as he was leading on those occassions Lee Chong Wei had 2 tough matches in the previous two days and that might had some impacts on him yesterday. Nevertheless, he showed great sportmanship at the end Women's Singles is supposedly China's trump card in almost every event, yet, it was not the case in Guangzhou and Tokyo a few months back. Wong Mew Choo had risen from nowhere to beat 4 Chinese players and 1 ex-Chinese player en-route to her title! She basically scared off Zhu Lin, Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang with her absolutely unbelievable fitness and agile footwork. As for Men's Doubles, the unexpected early exits for the other 3 seeds meant that it would be the perfect opportunity for the World Champion Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan to win their maiden Super Series title. They did not disappoint as they did not give a single chance to Fang Chieh-Min/Lee Sheng-Mu in the Semi-Final on Saturday. It turned out to be a comfortable straight-sets victory over the Chinese-Taipei pair. The first set of the Final match against Guo Zhendong/Xie Zhongbo was also a joy to watch as they totally dominated the set and the Chinese pair was simply clueless! The second set was a close affair and it was nail-biting until the end. There was a controversial service fault called when Kido/Hendra was leading 15-12, which led to the Chinese pair levelling the score at 15-15. Luckily, Kido/Hendra were calm enough and they won the second set 21-19. Congrats to Kido/Hendra as they have won their first Super Series title of the year and defended the China Open title they won last year! This also certify their good record in China over the past 2 years, having won twice in Guangzhou, once in Yiyang, once in Hong Kong, and runner-up in the controversial China Masters Super Series in Chengdu. Another title victory in Hong Kong this week will complete a memorable fortnight for them. However, I will just take it one match at a time One title is already comforting enough for me The weak link in this pair is still Markis Kido! Hendra Setiawan has grown to be more matured and composed in his game. Notice how many of his brilliant shots ended up with the INA pair winning the points. On the other hand, Kido still has the tendency to make many unforced errors. If he can minimize this aspect, this pair will go far in the Olympics! In the Mixed Doubles, the World Champion Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir also won their first Super Series title after a straight-set victory over the 2005 China Open winner Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms in the Semi-Final and a rubber-set victory over Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam in the Final. I only watched the second set of the Semi-Final match and it was clear that Nova/Butet dominated that set, never allowing Emms to take control of the net while Robertson was also not given a chance. They finished the set pretty comfortably at 21-15. The first set of the Final match belonged to the brilliant Thai pair. Sudket was absolutely in devastating form as the Thai pair forged a healthy early lead and won the first set very comfortably. In contrast, Butet was not performing well (as was the case in several other occassions ) with many uncharacteristics errors and lack of focus. Perhaps she should just concentrate in XD ? Luckily, it was the "good" side of Nova that appeared today and that redeemed the INA pair in the second and third sets. The INA pair managed to hang on to their lead late in the second set as Sudket/Saralee almost levelled the score at 17-18! Luckily, the INA pair regained their composure as they only allowed the Thai pair to win 1 more point in the second set. The Thai pair, especially Sudket was visibly tired by the third set and Nova/Butet quickly capitalized on this to forge a comfortable lead from the start. At the end, they won the third set and the match easily 21-11. Congrats to Nova/Butet! As for the WD, who cares anyway Gao Ling/Zhao Tingting won the title after a rubber-set victory over their junior Du Jing/Yu Yang. Overall, I had a great time watching the matches and mingling with the INA players and officials! I am looking forward to another great weekend in Hong Kong!
Well it shouldn't be but of course it happens all the time. If you allow it to happen and just close one eye, it will get worse. Then it makes the sport bad to watch. If you look at cricket for example, bad officiating becomes hammered and people want resignations. If we want badminton to be a serious thing, we must ensure good officiating. I will not give too much credence to the win otherwise (and who suffers -- players).
If can I would like to hammer someone also yesterday, but it happen all the time. It just kill the game. But if all player like WMC, it would be all pump-up to watch. Umpire and line judges are not important at all.
If I were allowed to manipulate the draws, I wonder whether it's a good thing to do to make the CHN players play against each other at the early stage of try to spread them apart ... The former approach will become a bait for team order or walkover; the latter approach may "risk" all Chinese affair in the later stage which will make the tournament less interesting. The best (but tough) thing to do is that the rest of the countries nurture more top players as additional "great walls" for CHN players to break.
They r important...our big boss Mr. Li Yongbo said we got to respect the umpire n linejudges no matter what...though occassionally he himself challenged the decision of umpire n judges Anyway, i think we have enoungh discussion on the unfair decision or whatsoever...lets just don't take the winner pride off those performed well. peace....
happy and sad... happy for Wong Mew Choo, congratulations! sad, LCW lost, but Bao played well, no doubt... yes, the line calls did affect LCW, but overall Bao did deserve to win after 15 losing finals! woah... but i wonder, if the 4 calls against LCW were given correctly to LCW, it would have been a more interesting match, whoever the winner... hehe... overall, nice week, shame bout all the debate and anger flying around...
oh, and Wong Mew Choo had a brilliant week, beating all those players and winning the title... congrats!
The thread was originated by BADMANIA, an INA Fans who did quite indept analysys on their players.. PLEASE don't make it yet another argument here. IT IS ENOUGH !!!!!
Why are you saying this? What is enough? Who is making another argument? Not badMania, right? Anyway, I am very happy the Southeast Asians won 3 in China Open... Cool....
Hey, I am not happy leh... How? I wanna see our GOLDEN COUPLE at the podium at the same time, can? (kidding only)
BadMania, since you are in such good mood, please gang up with Hauge and Kwun to report live on HK SS as well. We want to know everything, the mood, the atmosphere, the players, the walkovers, the miraculous recoveries, the line judging/service faults/questionable calls etc. Oh, and pics too, lots of pics ...........
Since I am working, I think I will only go at night and during the weekends Just called up Hau-Ge and he mentioned that the main-draw matches will start as early as tomorrow The qualifying draws were held this afternoon. Yet again bad arrangements with no prior notice whatsover from the organizer
I believe Samuel was referring to the (still continuing) argument about unfair linecalls that follows my first post.
It is not good for you to know everything.... Suddenly I saw LYB 3 times within 30 minutes...still wearing his Armani cap and Armani bag.... he looks with the cap...
Thanks for sharing.. ..your experience during the China Open, badMania!!(rest of wonderful experience snipped for brevity)..Now, on for another encore at the HK Open, which should be even more of a blast!!->see HK Open get-together event..
