Vittinghus: I really wanted to be in Huelva Vittinghus is disappointed to miss the 2018 European Championships in Huelva, which starts next week on April 24th. Find out what Vittinghus has of expectations to Thomas Cup and his future career from the BEC Podcast episode 16 below:
It was stupid of the association to not select him. "Hey Vittinghus, you cannot play the Euro-Champs, we will send Gemke instead and Jorgensen who has lost to LDK and Caljouw lately just happened to get a wildcard. But we expect you to play 110% in Thomas cup later to help us win"
But...uhhhh...tennis does it so it must work right??????? He's not ignorant or anything. He's usually outspoken about controversial topics but never carelessly like this. I hope he's not really serious? I love tennis, but at the same time it really sucks. Gaps between men/women are huge in terms of prize money, sponsors, media coverage etc. The obnoxious lack of respect for women. Doubles players dont get even half the thunder that singles players get, not to mention womens doubles players...
The pay gap is not just between men and women but also between singles and doubles. I'm not sure it's just about not getting half the thunder, though. I think it might be not having half the thunder. Tennis doubles is just not an exciting game. It's not as bad as ping pong doubles - which is more of an annoyance than anything - but it's still nothing to compared to badminton, where for many of us, doubles is the main event. I'm surprised the logical split wouldn't be singles and doubles. Candra Wijaya staged a doubles-only event a few years ago but it never caught on. I'm not saying that would be viable either, but it would solve the problem that Vittinghus comments on above, of having mixed doubles rarely happen. Especially these days, players who play both singles and doubles are outnumbered by doubles/mixed players by about 100 to 1. I understand the desire to look for a better way, though. We can celebrate the particular appeal of our sport as much as we like but few sports garner the prestige needed to sell a 5-6h finals day. Tennis sometimes has a Grand Slam doubles final on a Sunday, doesn't it, but I think most people and some TV stations ignore it so the attention is only asked for one singles final on Saturday for maximum 2h and then 2-4h (5h only in extreme, 5-set cases) on Sunday. Team sports usually only ask your attention for 2-3h for a final.
Remember that some Events don't have many visitors before SF/F. I normally pay my attention on the disciplines I play. Sometimes I also watch an exiting WS or MD. Mostly I watch MD and XD. But depending on who play a WD can turn me away from a boring XD or MD. If I need to buy a ticket for a saussage party of badminton, I would never buy a ticket. I prefer to watch a high level of each discipline instead of a watered down sausage event. I don't get his point? Is his wifey nervous because of the attractive players at the venues? Is HKV a potential cheater? IMO Thomas and Uber-Cup is the worst Event to watch and he should know that badminton is not tennis. Many people also watch tennis without playing. I don't think that many people are inside a venue who don't play badminton.
At least that would be a realistic point that would not make him seem to be a complete jerk. Apart from that, the idea is utter nonsense. Who pays for finals tickets and most likely invests a couple of hours traveling to watch what, 2-3 hours badminton? Leaving aside the expected double effort (and costs) for the organisers.
I cant even think of what he is talking about. He dont even want to have Mixed doubles? WTH. He would have got his account filled with dollars. That does not mean he need to talk something like this. Really unfortunate. As we are seeing many past Denmark players taking over commentators box, after his retirement I dont want to see him in that box, which would be unfair to Mixed double players all around the world.
Maybe he sees Mixed Doubles as Singles light version? A lot of club players see Mixed as MS without net. Maybe he sees it in the same way and is jealous that some Singles light players are more famous as he himself, the real deal MS player, because MS is the discipline of the kings, while anything else is only the easier version of badminton. Wouldn't be the first sportman with total meltdown if I think about Jan Ulrich.
Just a thought... Maybe he and AA have a bet going on who can provoke the bigger shitstorm? That might put some sense in the latter's "bUt thE dRAws ArE riGgEd!" logorrhea episode from a couple of days ago.
Time to set up Intl badminton player association. I brought this up long ago. As a former Malaysian tennis player in 1973 I remember this particular international tennis incident which changed the face of international tennis forever..... Nikola "Niki" Pilić was the catalyst to the 1973 Wimbledon boycott. In May 1973, the Yugoslav tennis federation alleged that Pilić had refused to represent them in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand earlier that month. Pilić denied the charge, but was suspended by the federation, and the suspension was upheld by the ILTF, INTERNATIONAL LAWN TENNIS FEDERATION, albeit decreased from nine months to one month, meaning that he could not enter the Wimbledon Championships. In protest at the suspension, 81 of Pilić's fellow professionals, organized into the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and including 13 of the 16 seeds, withdrew from the 1973 Wimbledon Championships. After that the ATP became a very powerful organisation and today the growth of international tennis is due to ATP. The insane powers of the National Tennis Federations which hindered the growth of professional tennis before 1973 was completely wiped out. Kuldip Singh son of Durbara.
