If England could secure a medal in their own country it would be a huge boost, and we have the advantage of a wildcard in each event. So what are our prospects? Mens doubles Robertson / Clark are clearly on form our only hope in the mens doubles. Palethorpe/Blair are improving rapidly and have reached the top 20, but they lost easily to Sullivan/Archer at the nationals and don't look to have the strength to compete at the world level yet. Sullivan steps in for the injured Robertson with Jeffreys but they do not look likely to trouble any of the top pairs. Whilst Robertson / Clark are ranked at a high of 7 in the world, if I had to pick ten pairs likely to contest the medals CHENG Rui WANG Wei SANG Yang ZHENG Bo FU Haifeng CAI Yun ERIKSEN Jens LUNDGAARD HANSEN Martin PAASKE Lars RASMUSSEN Jonas WIJAYA Candra BUDIARTO Sigit HA Tae Kwon KIM Dong Moon LEE Dong Soo YOO Yong Sung CHEW Choon Eng CHAN Chong Ming TEERAWIWATANA Pramote PANVISVAS Tesana and Robertson/Clark have played and lost to 5 of these pairs in the last year. However they have been improving all the time and with a good seeding and draw and one upset we could have an outside chance of a bronze. (I may be a bit optimistic ) Of course if Flandi /Eng were playing they'd be about 5th favourite on paper. Notice I have listed the lowly ranked chinese who look to have the potential to be the next top pairs. Mens Singles There has been great debate over the wildcard being given to young Andrew Smith over new national no.1 Mark Burgess. However given that none of our men are in the top thirty it is understandable to look to the future. If you picked 20 men with a shot at the quarters neither Ghaffar, Haughton or Smith would be in it. Ghaffar reached the final of the Austrian last week and so is in form but although a first round upset might be possible I can't see any of our guys beating more than one of the world class (top 25) players. Ladies singles Tracey Hallam has improved greatly but neither her Mann or Pittard would have much chance against the top ten, the 4 chinese, Audina, Camilla, Wang chen, Pi Hongyan or top korean. Kelly Morgan looks unable to get back to her best so wins against other european opposition would be good for any of these UK girls. Ladies doubles Again only one pair to consider Kellog/Emms, they played great since getting back together and if they avoid the 4 chinese and 2 korean pairs should reach the qtrs, where on home soil they will receive great support. A chance of a quarter. Mixed doubles Despite their world 1 ranking most peoples favourites will be Kim/Ra and the top chinese pair. I would put Robertson/Emms third favourites , but pairs such as Eriksen Schjodager and rasmussen /olsen will make even a bronze a great achievement. Hopefully our pair will have learnt from their mistakes in the Commonwealth where they crashed out as hot favourites. Archer with Scotland's McEwan and Bliar / Munt will find it tough going although never discount Archer's will to win if he can stay fit. So anything is possible in the mixed, a lot depends on if the expectation lifts Emms / Robertson or pressures them. So what do you guys think?
I believe i am being realistic if not pesimistic in saying that our only chance of a medal is a bronze in the mixed and that would be a truly superb achievement. Robertson and emms are the only pair we have that approach world class level.mens singles i see 2nd round as being superb,the level at these championships is too much for our best and to take a match would be brilliant. in the mens doubles i see us as getting 2nd round 3rd round would be an achievement. womens singles is a tough one and we could with luck reach quarters with a fantastic performance, however once you get to that stage the players will just be too good for our players. that leaves the womens doubles in which i believe the3rd round would be impressive for us. top three in each event: ms: chen hong, kenneth jonassen, lee hyun ws: camilla martin, mi zhou, ruina gong/zhang ning md: kim & ha, candra & sigit,chan & chew/lee &yoo wd: gao & huang, yang & zhang, ra & lee xd: kim & ra, kim & ra, zhang & gao It wasnt amisprint i cant see anyone except the two pairs mentioned winning the mixed. i believe providing mr "ice cube" moon and ra dont get too tired in their respective doubles events then the title is theirs. gao is the only woman close to ra and no one in mine comes close to kim in dbl or mx. i strongly favour the koreans in all events bar the ws. and relish the chance of seeing a sigit/candra & kim and ra final in md, equally with a hopefully on song lee kyun vs jonassen, however the ms is fairly open, as these events are tiring mentally and physically and we have no ssuperstar in the ms.......prove me wrong england, critics give me all you got!!!looking forward to seeing the quarter/semi/finals in person.
Assessing my predictions (made before the draw) and England's performance .... WS As I mentioned Hallam was our improving player and she showed this with her first round upset over the Japanese seed and another European to reach the third round but at that point the gulf between china and the rest really showed MS Andrew Smith on paper should have won against the Phillipines player ranked outside top 100, but he showed his age with a nervous performnce to crash out. Ghaffar and Haughton had games they wouldn't expect to win , Haughton did well to take an end. WD Our second pair did well and could have gone further to the qtrs, Emms/Kellog had a tough draw meeting the korean pair so early. Again its all about avoiding the top 6 pairs in the early rounds. MD Clark/RObertson started well but from 7-7 in the second set and 1 set up hardly won a point against Chew /Chen, possibly fitness is their biggest weakness?
