OK folks, since the tournament hasn't start yet, just want to get you guys' opinion on who will win the 2006CTO??... badMania, willing to start and break the ice on this??.. I know you will be posting your regular and comprehensive reviews on the upcoming matches... BTW, when i checked the CTO link, which i think they did a very2 good job in providing a dual-language site, i noticed USA will send Howard B. and Bob M. along with Eric Go to compete..And is it true that the INA squad will not send that many players to compete, as i saw over 20 players in the list that are being sent..
Hahaha...I will do so tomorrow Seems that ppl still can't get over the Sunday incident...amazing...I even see threads started by new members... Come to think of it...MO is much more happening than either IO and SO...despite the lack of live updates.
Okay...let me start off with XD, since this is the only event Team Indonesia has a chance of winning. QUARTER 1 Zhang Jun/Gao Ling (1) Songphon Anukritayawon/Kunchala Vorawichitchaikul (5/8) -- no problem for the top seed to go all the way to the semi-final. Meanwhile, Songphon/Kunchala have a tricky first round tie against Lee Yong Dae/Hwang Yu Mi. QUARTER 2 Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir (3/4) Hendry Saputra Kurniawan/Li Yujia (5/8) -- similarly, Nova/Butet shouldn't have a problem reaching the semi-final, where Zhang Jun/Gao Ling should await them. Saputra/Li should provide the quarter-final opposition, although the Singaporean have to beat Sun Junjie/Tian Qing in Round 1/16. QUARTER 3 Koo Kien Keat/Wong Pei Tty (5/8) Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam (3/4) -- Sudket/Saralee have a smooth ride to the quarter-final, but no so for Koo/Wong. The Malaysian pair will meet the winner between Hwang Ji Man/Kim Min Jung and Tsai Chia-Hsin and Cheng Wen-Hsing in Round 1/16. Regardless of the opposition, Sudket/Saralee should qualify from this quarter. QUARTER 4 Xu Chen/Yu Yang (5/8) Lee Jae Jin/Lee Hyo Jung (2) -- both seeded pairs should meet in the quarter-final. Lee/Lee have been erratic lately, with losses to Nova/Butet and Anggun/Vita in the IO and MO. They should have a slight edge against the young Chinese pair. So, the semi-finals should feature Zhang Jun/Gao Ling vs Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir and Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam vs Lee Jae Jin/Lee Hyo Jung. It will be excellent if Nova/Butet can beat the reigning Olympic and All-England champion. They have not yet meet under the new scoring system and it should be a thriller! As for Sudket/Saralee vs Lee/Lee, I think the Thai pair can prevail. My personal hope: Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir vs Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam in the Final...with Nova/Butet winning yet again. It all however depends on whether they can beat Zhang Jun/Gao Ling in the semi-final!
I don't watch the ladies play. So my comments will be centred on the men's doubles and singles. MS : Absolutely a toss-up between the two MO FINALS players - with LCW having a slight edge over LD with his 8-pt recovery -- this is a morale booster for LCW, and with that, he should bring it home from now onwards. MD : An open affair but the Malaysians should again impress with their skills. The confidence is riding high in the Malaysian camp and I can see Rexy instilling more into the players than anyone before him. So I predict a Malaysian pair to figure in this.
I think XD :Zhangjun/GaoLing,MS :ZhangNing ,WD:GaoLing/HuangSui I am a worry about LinDan because he have done in MO2006.
Can LCW be world #1 if he become the champion in 2006 CTO? Where should LD go through to retain his world #1? Round 1/16?
I dunno about men singles.. Dont even know if LCW is going to play.. But Koo and Chan are playing so I land my best hope on them.. But I hope they will maintain being consistent after the win over Cai/Fu, not being sent out in qualifying round like in SO
Look at the draws...they are not even inside the main draw. Team Indonesia only sends Tommy, Nova/Butet and Lita/Vita. In addition, Djarum sends Rian/Eng Hian. BTW...Markis Kido is one person...not two
DJARUM sends Rian/eng hian, and PBSI doesn't send any md , even flandy/sigit 'markis kido' sounds better than 'markis hendra'
I only hope that Malaysia will take the risks and send more singles players..especially the younger ones for more exposure. Doesnot matter they lose or what...what's important is exposure. Hopefully it will produce more LCWs.
It seems like Tommy is participating in every leg of the Asian tour. Looks like having a powerful dad really helps.. This must be one of the conditions that Icuk Sugiarto demanded before Tommy rejoins PBSI..
There is a lot of wind in the gym that caused the shuttle to be long at the north side and short at the south. Players need to be aware of that so they don't make mistakes as people did today.
I wish younger MD pairs from MAS could surprise us with sparkling performance. For MS, I still think Chinese players especially CJ and LD will win, LCW doesn't have good records against them at overseas.
Players who go there just to gain exposure and experience would not be the right kind of players to be sent there as they are a waste of money. Players who go there should be determined to win and even if they eventually lose, they should have given their opponents the fight of their lives. Malaysia need to groom winners, not badminton tourists. I would believe BAM will evaluate which youngsters have the hunger and determination before sending them over and not just send a whole bunch of casual-spirited youngsters there to lose 21-0 or large margins and spend the rest of the tournament as cheerleaders or go shopping. Look at the recent comments by Malaysia's chief coach regarding certain player not performing despite being send for tournaments. Its not about grooming youngsters but grooming hungry youngsters with the winning mentality. Precious funds are used to foot the bill and I don't think they intend to waste it.
Although my gut feeling is that LCW will not win, there's always a possibility. I also would not expect him to win again as there needs to be more patience regarding our expectations regarding LCW. There's still years in his career, its better that he collects titles bit by bit rather than expecting him to rush too much and burn out.
A bit off topic & just my 2 cents.. EastDevil, i know you've touched on this topic before in another thread...hmm and seems like you have the same minset as PBSI also..hehe But personally, my feeling is that BAM is not sending their younger players to these tourney's for nothing. Heck, maybe they do have the funds to send them to play overseas(who knows??). Besides, even if they have the funds(which i'm sure they probably do), what are they going to do with it?? Just keep them and keep their younger players to train all the time??.. Besides, like what i've highlighted in bold above, how will they accomplish that?? Mind telling us the possibility??.. My point is, you've got to give inexperienced players chances to prove themselves. Sure it might be *costly*, but isn't that what the sport organization's goal/risk that they know is/are when they recruit these players??..It's not always a case where they could be a Taufik or a Susy-Susanti or ZhangNing which comes along often.. On that note, personally, i think BAM's situation(financially speaking) is most likely different than PBSI.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying they don't have the money. It about the efficient use of the money, that's all. Players with winning mentality, hunger and determination can easily be discovered during training sessions and local competitions. You do not need to go overseas to start showing winning mentality, etc. As I have discussed with a friend before, if we give a bunch of youngsters 30 minutes to run on a 400m track, the lazy ones will run 1 round, the average ones will run enough to just pass and the hungry ones will run as many as they can possibly run. Imagine if out of your top 5 youngsters, the bottom 3 are the lazy or average ones who do not show the hunger, why would you want to waste money sending them to overseas tournaments since they are already not showing hunger and determination even during training? I believe BAM will look at that too and send only those that want to be winners. This problem occurs in most places and is also faced by Singapore as well. Determined players will benefit from the tournaments as it will motivate them further, but others will simply treat it as a holiday.
