Re: Character and Personality I guess I didn't make myself entirely clear. I was not saying poor sports are better than good sports, I was commenting that ultra bland, phony modest comments are, to me, just as bad as watching an immature loudmouth complain or brag. I had no intention of making an issue of a fan's country of origin, other than to comment that because of my country of origin, the U.S., it would be very difficult and expensive for me to gain any knowledge of professional badminton sufficient for me to become a fan of any particular player. I simply found it interesting and remarkable that so many posters from other countries could be such strong and outspoken fans of various players or teams. Of course you are right that there are plenty of Western athletes with decent attitudes who exhibit good sportsmanship on a daily basis, but I don't see how that is relevant - I wasn't even hinting that I wanted to make a comparison between US or Western athletes and athletes from other parts of the world. Sadly, there are many Western athletes, the majority of whom are Americans, who regularly display poor sportsmanship. As for Chen Hong, there is simply no way that a person who has enough competitive drive to win at international levels can be completely candid when they spew forth all the false modesty during an interview. A top level player may have been somewhat disappointed with some aspects of his/her play or found areas that need more work, but on most occasions they must be happy or satisfied with a win. I am sick of watching interviews of athletes that reveal absolutely no information whatsoever of any merit. Athletes in virtually all sports are now so consumed with playing the team line of politeness and political correctness that it is indeed a rare thing to acquire any new information of any sort about factors that actually resulted in the successful performance or about facts that were not readily apparent from a television viewer's perspective. I would guess that 95% of all interviews of athletes are completely worthless and I would lump Chen Hong's interview into that category also. If a sport does not have any interesting characters, it is not likely to become or stay popular. Bland, cliched comments from athletes do not help a sport's image. Let's take tennis for example. While I love to watch old clips of McEnroe playing, I'm not a big fan of his attitude and deliberate poor sportsmanship. However, I don't think you can argue that in 20 years, people will still remember McEnroe very vividly as a player, whereas his successors such as Edberg and Willander (who have similar records in the Grand Slam tournaments compared to McEnroe's record) will be, by and large, forgotten. Like it or not Birdbrain, this forum has had a lot more postings on more controversial players like Taufik and Camilla Martin than on bland, uninteresting players.
Re: INDONESIAN SUPPORTER MESSAGE Actually, Chinese men's doubles are not that week as most people thought. Look back to the team events, including Sudirman, Thomas, even this Asian Cup, Chinese men's doubles were almost invincible. Liu Yong, Zhang Jun, Zhang Wei, Yu Jinhao are all good double players. The reason they always choke in the tournaments is that they cannot concentrate on men's double. They are all mixed double players too. Please note that INA mixed doubles are not playing men's double. At almost all tournaments, Mixed double just proceed one or two hours before men's double. So when they started playing men's double, all Chinese men had already been completely drained out. That's why they did well in Mixed double because it started first.
Korean Doubles Korea is traditionally strong in the doubles event and not so much in singles, save for WS player Bang Soo Hyun. During the 92 Olympic games, they took the men's and women's doubles. During the 96 Olympic games, they took 1-2 in the mixed doubles. The only MS players from Korea I remember are Kim Hak Kyun, Park Sung Woo and Ahn Jae Chang. Cannot remember how high they were ranked during their peak. But HI Lee is good.
Re: Character and Personality I would rather compare McEnroe with Ivan lendal. If you lived outside the states, say, in Sweden, Edberg and Wilander (I don't think they are as great player as McEnroe) are more famous than McEnroe. Lendal did got much more titles, and also neutralized to the US citizen, but it seems nobady still remember him now. Remember that women love thugs!
Re: Character and Personality Yeah, everything spoken out is just excuse. The real reasons, which are the real driving force for all these kind of Phenomena, are never spoken out.
Taufik will be #1 tomorrow Hey, to anyone doubts about Taufik, Let me tell you that he will be number one shuttler in the world. Isn't it sweet!
Re: Cheung Yeah! The Badminton Association of England produced an official tape of the Yonex All England 2001. Check your email.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow In late 80's, Korea did have good ladies singles player. One in particular, Lee Ying Suk if I am not mistaken. First time saw her play in HK Open, either she won or was runner up that year. Beat Li Ling Wei and final was between her and Han Ai Ping. Later in Indonesia she played Susi Susanti in Sudirman Cup in Indonesia. Won the first set, led the second 10-3 or 4 but unable to cope with the pressure and lost 2nd set in deuce. Final set, her face was reddish, she was crying on court, played badly and lost. Something must have happened between the 2nd and 3rd set. Fact is I've never seen her playing again. Too bad as I thought she had the potential to be the top singles lady player.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow She was slaped across the face. I know Korean coach are used to slaping players, especially girls, around
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow That's totally f**Ked up. But you have to realize..how bad do you really want it?...I would take it..considering I want to play the best that I can....
Re: Cheung Yes And I'd really like to see Naseem's fight as well. Before i left UK (a few yrs ago) he was around then and really cocky and fast. That he's stayed around for so long is a testament to his skill.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow Do u mean somebody who's name begins with "T"? (And I don;t mean Tony Luu!! even though he is willing to be slapped) we'd better introduce that M'sian army guy to Tony.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow This was not confirmed although it was supposed to what has happened. All other Korean players led by Park Joo Bong almost boycotted the remainder of the games, I heard.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow Which guy has a name beginning with "T", Cheung??? *faking look of innocence* If he gets slapped, I'll personally shoot his coach down =P
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow That's a long time tradition, or you can call it Japanese culture and Korean culture, in Japanese and Korean. Husband slaps wife, Boss slaps employees, Captain slaps soldiers,..., it is so common and usual. They practice these as routine work to keep good team work. The person who got slapped is not supposed crying, instead, he or she should straight up his or her face, at same time, saying "hai-yi, hai-yi" to show their obedience. Believe or not, I think it IS the secret weapson why Japanese and Korean are so good at team working. This is also why Korean's double are better than their singles. Just my two cents.
Re: Taufik will be #1 tomorrow IBF should update players' ranking today, which will move Taufik to the number 1 position. But there is no update yet from IBF official web site. Any reason?
