Today promises to be a great day, and at the rate the German Open is going right now, I hope the All-England will not be anti-climatic. MS Lin D v Bao CL Hafiz v Lee CW If you take Taufik, Kenneth and Peter out of the equation, these 4 semi-finalists are the form players right now, so it is good that they did not cancel one another out in earlier rounds. Although the matches may seem uninteresting due to players of the same nationalities playing each other, but I think it is just the opposite. Both matches are similar in that Lin and Lee will try to stamp their top ranking in the national order, while Bao (who has been in the shadow long enough) and Hafiz will try to overthrow the leader. WS Zhang N v Hirose E Xie XF v Pi HY The score of her victory over Zhou Mi seems to place Hirose on the same level as Zhang, but Zhang is an entirely different proposition altogether. If Hirose can beat Zhang in an all-out match, then the WS scene will be entirely shaken. But I will still place my bets on Zhang. I don't think she is defeatable just yet. I expect the other semi-final to be a close affair. MD Eriksen/Lungaard v Kidho/Setiawan Fu/Cai v Jung/Lee Based on their results since the Singapore Open (when I began to take notice), I think Jung/Lee have arrived at the MD scene. You can expect them to be one of the big guns in every tournament, and I expect them to give Fu/Cai a big fight. Kidho/Setiawan is unknown to me. I have never seen them before and even though beating Choong/Chew is not a very big deal, it does mean something. We shall see how they fare today. Eriksen/Lungaard are firm favourites for the title. WD Lee KW/Lee HJ v Gao/Huang Chin/Wong v Wei/Zhao Both very exciting ties. Chin/Wong famously defeated Wei/Zhao in Singapore. Wei/Zhao will be very determined to even the score and also to prove themselves in light of the emergence of Du/Yu. But Chin/Wong, if not dominant, are feisty fighters and they have nothing to lose. For the whole day, if there is only one match I can watch, I will watch the other semi-final. Just replace Lee HJ with Ra and we are reminded of the sweet old times. But Lee HJ is every bit a good replacement and defeating the World No 1 will spur the Koreans. Gao/Huang will be determined to relive better times with the defeat of their nemesis Yang/Zhang. XD Robertson/Emms v Zhang/Gao Lee JJ/Lee HJ v Chen/Zhao Despite missing the lustre of yester-years, the top semi-final will still be interesting. Perhaps Robertson/Emms, spurred by the momentous occasion of meeting their old foes, will give their all, and maybe we shall see the Olympic final again. The Lees are worthy Korean Open winners and I think this semi-final could also go either way.
Thanks hcyong for your updates and interesting analyses. I'm surprised that you did not watch Kidho/Setiawan during the Singapore Open. I think they made the headlines only last year, together with the other more successful pair Luluk/Alven, which I think is more stable and cohesive. I must admit that I was a little confused with these two up-and-coming pairs when they first made it to the limelight and even now, it takes me some effort to be able to identify them. IMO, these two younger pairs will form the backbone of Indonesia's men's doubles team, replacing the renewed partnership of Candra/Sigit and Eng/Flandi, both pairs perhaps already past their prime. Pi Hongyan seems to be in great form lately but her battle with Xie Xingfang will be a different and difficult proposition. Xie is hungry for the WR No.1 position (Zhang Ning beware!) and will not likely let Pi grab the limelight from her. So it should be an interesting fight between two ethnic Chinese players, one who's been exported and the other, a hot local China favourite.
There were many matches being played simultaneously, and I could have easily missed the Kidho/Setiawan match. Then, their results were not worth noticing, so it's not surprising that I missed them. Luluk/Alven has been big for quite a while already. They were even world no 1 for a brief moment. We will just have to see how Kidho/Setiawan fares.
Kidho/Setiawan reached the final of the Denmark Open last October (already beating Eriksen/Lundgaard in the semis), they are clearly a very good MD pair!!
mmm. LCW will pull it off vs Hafiz. Finals would be LD vs LCW. I reckon. Just my gut feeling on this one.
I don't think Bao can beat Lin. As I know (I can be wrong), Bao has never beat Lin. Lee is a new generation of Malaysia. I think he can beat Hafiz. So, the MS final will be played between Lin vs Lee. Zhang Ning still the best, if a lady can beat her at this moment, she is Hirose. But Hirose has to work very hard. My dream for MD final is Kidho/Setiawan vs Jung/Lee. Maybe just a dream, but who knows will come true. It is hard for Kidho/Setiawan to beat a more experince Eriksen/Lungaard. But they are young and 'hungry'. Fu/Cai is unstable they performance is up and down. They young Jung/Lee have a strong motivate to beat them to be a new Korean MD. I have no doubt to choose Gao/Huang for the WD title. XD is unpredictable, all the semi finalist has a quality to beat each other. I am a little bit for Zhang/Gao.
I wiish hongyan can reach the final !! she can beat xie she did it, i guess it was last year ... she swept cheng shaoh sieh 11-4 11-1 and her coach fabrice vallet said that she played perfectly if she can play like that against xie she can win =))
new style Maybe hongyan has a chance in her new weapon : net to kill. She seems to have changed her game when losing yesterday in the deciding game. Clearly, Hongyan is lacking some extra weapon when she usually plays top chinese players in the semis. I hope that this changements can help her in the last ans so important points. Good luck 3,14 !
Bao Chunlai beat Lin Dan in the semifinals of the Japan Open 2004. I believe that Bao has beaten Lin in the not too distant past as well.
A while back now, but I remember this one because it was one of the first tournaments I ever saw on TV (I had to look up the score though) Bao beat Lin in the Final of the Danish Open 2001 7-5, 7-1, 7-0
Bao Chunlai won against Lin Dan in the Japan Open last year. I think Lin Dan gave him the match though...
