Not really....Candra/Sigit is still not in their best form yet. Sigit is still recovering from his injuries. A bad day for Team Indonesia overall, with only Luluk/Alvent and Nova/Butet in the semi-final tomorrow. Luluk/Alvent faces another tough tie against Choong/Lee, who has beaten Markis/Hendra in 3 sets.
MEN'S DOUBLES Hoon Thien How/Tan Boon Heong vs Hwang Ji Man/Jung Tae Kuk -- a good victory for the young Malaysian pair. They will continue to rise under Rexy's coaching. They might yet again surprise, although I pick the Korean pair to win. Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah vs Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto (MATCH OF THE ROUND) -- tough to pick...nevertheless, I hope the Indo pair can win this match and go on to win their first tournament in almost 1.5 year. WOMEN'S DOUBLES Lim Pek Siay/Joanne Quay Swee Ling vs Chien Yu-Chin/Cheng Wen-Hsing -- the more experienced Taiwanese pair to win. Pan Pan/Tian Qing vs Du Jing/Yu Yang (MATCH OF THE ROUND) -- Pan/Tian is definitely on the rise....but the more experienced Du/Yu will win.
Still big achievement for Hoon/Tan in the sense that they were NOT SCARED of the world #1 pair. Mental strength often plays an important part in deciding the winners.
Err, cannot underestimate this pair, the tiny Lim Pek Siah is more experienced than the Taiwanese girls. At age 19 with Chor Hooi Yee she was already a CG WD silver medallist in KL, 4 years later she and new partner Ang Li Peng won gold under the best of 7, 7 pts system (blanking NZ pair 7-0 in final set). After that they quit BAM, but she still actively plays with Chor Hooi Yee (1st partner), Ang Li Peng (2nd partner) and Joanne (3rd partner). Last year, and without significant international competition for years, Lim/Chor still qualified for world championships and stretched the Thai pair of Saralee/Sathinee in 3 games. In fact the reemergence of MAS girls at world class levels started with Lim Pek Siah, not Wong Mew Choo or the Wong/Chin pair.
so where are they now? are they training on their own? or are they just playing for fun? they still have a chance to me at least....
No matter how the actual rankings change, Sigit & Chandra are World #1 (i.e., THE pair to beat) in everybody's mind.
indo pairs lost with tight scores.. it's ok.. sigit is stil recovery from injury, he didn't give his best in that game markis/setiawan is stil promising, they only need be more patient
Just dug up this piece of data from my "dusty" archive ... actually an old file on my harddisk ... Lim/Quay used to pair up for a short period ages ago and even reached the semi-final stage at HK Open 1999.
I am sure you will also remember that there were plenty of disputed line-calls at that time Wang even vowed not to compete in China anymore. Sure, both Jiang and Chen are talented players and they will definitely rise up to the top 5 ranking in no time. I am not underestimating their potential....and thankfully, both Wang Chen and Kaori Mori didn't disappoint today and beat the Chinese youngsters In terms of experience, both still have the edge over their younger opponents.
