it is shocking news, China has never missed any XD titles entering 2009. In another word, that's the miracle they made. While they lost many other titles, including Women's singles, women's doubles, men's singles and men's doubles. They have swept all XD titles in all tournaments they attended. But now, none of them even entering the final 4. strange, very strange. China badminton team, except Zhang Jun/Gao Ling, just simply become impotent in BWF events. Maybe they just want to grab the prize money, nothing else. Especially Zheng Bo, this guy has won so many open tournament titles with Zhang Jiewen, with Zhao Tingting, with Gao Ling and now with Ma Jin. But no wc, no OG.
Until Nova and LHJ is replaced, CHN will have a chance to crack these top XD pairs. There simply isn't anyone with LN or LYD capability in the CHN camp. YY is powerful and MJ has the speed but LN is legend. If she gets a more consistent thumper (someone like ZB will be sufficient), thats WR#1 in the making. Likewise, if LYD gets a good consistent frontcourt lady (again, MJ is good enough), they are again a WR#1 material. Looking at how both LYD and LN has to keep picking up the pieces left by their partners is quite painful.
1 mighty XD pair for China squad??.. ..as somewhat mentioned in this post #454; quite concur with supernova: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1230362#post1230362 ...oh, thank you for putting the Chinese way of writing his name back again..
Will this trend continue??.. Will this major surprise continue in the near future? Is this a brief major snag in the road for CHN XD squad? With Nova retiring (soon), who will pick up the pieces for INA XD squad?
I was thinking also... but one talk Korean and another Bahasa Indonesia. Quite funny if they need a translator for communication . Then again, LN was really sub-par last evening. Nova, OTOH, performed better than I thought. XD and MD are still China's most vulnerable event although in the longer term, MD will likely show greater weakness.
i heard mohd rijal will be pairing up with butet next.. what about pairing up the young and the vateran? lee yong dae/gao ling.. korean domination.. call gao ling to migrate to korea lol, i just realised i was just daydreaming..
Will it be Ma Jin or Yu Yang to carry the torch??.. Although they've been consistent with the AE, having won the last 4 AE XD titles, incl. this yr, the XD event has been a touch & go event for the CHN squad. It's even more glaring after the departure/retirement of Gao Ling & Zhang Jun from the squad. The last time a CHN pair won a WC XD title was in 2001 (through GL & ZJ). The last time a CHN pair won an OG XD title was in 2004 (through GL & ZJ). Off topic: and how will they do as a pair??..
