Oh..so Fu Hai Feng has Indonesian blood...good to know that.....so tomorrow Fu Hai Feng should lose to MK/HS..as sign of respect to his father country mate?????????
Phew....what a long day (even longer than yesterday) it had been and most importantly, the crowds were turning up, which really created a buzzing atmosphere for the night session. There were not many seats left and it was nearly a full house, which was good news for the organizers! I entered the stadium only to learn that Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir have won their match, while Sony Dwi Kuncoro lost to Chen Jin So, naturally, I went on to watch Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam vs Zheng Bo/Gao Ling. Similar to last week's encounter in Guangzhou, it was a classic match filled with drama. The first set was pretty neck-to-neck, but Zheng Bo/Gao Ling always had a slim advantage until it was 19-16. Suddenly, Sudket/Saralee showed their capability of coming back and levelled the score at 19-19. The Chinese pair had a game point at 20-19, but, again, the Thai pair won 3 straight points to seal the set 22-20. As I mentioned in the other thread, the big boss Li Yongbo had to shout some instructions to BOTH players. Later on, he came down to the court personally The Thai pair was also leading 7-5 in the second set when Zheng/Gao stormed back to win 8 consecutive points to make it 13-7. The gap proved too much for Sudket/Saralee and they lost the second set 12-21. The third set was also a close affair with the Thai pair coming back from 10-14 down to level the scores later on at 17-17. Zheng/Gao won another 2 points to make it 19-17, still, the Thai pair levelled it at 19-19. It was at this point that there was a close call which turned the pendulum into the Chinese pair at 20-19 match-point. Zheng/Gao took advantage and finished off the match 21-19. What a match it turned out to be! I also watched glimpses of the match between Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun and Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen. The Chinese pair was clearly the stronger pair. Paaske/Rasmussen was leading 11-7 in the second set, but, it was still not enough as the Chinese pair turned on their attacking mode to win the match 21-16, 21-17. The last match that I watched in the afternoon session was between Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan and Tadashi Ohtsuka/Keita Masuda. The Japanese pair really improved a lot and they showed in the early stage that they could match the World Champion, leading 10-7 before Kido/Hendra upped their tempo and in just a few minutes, they were leading 19-14. The Japanese pair staged a mini-comeback as they narrowed the lead to 17-19 and then 18-20. However, it was not enough as Kido/Hendra wrapped the first set 21-18. The second set was a similar affair, with Kido/Hendra contented in allowing the Japanese pair taking the early initiative, leading 11-7 at the interval. From the on, they again started to play their game and the Japanese pair found themselves trailing 14-17. Eventually, the World Champion sealed the match 21-18, 21-17. Then came the break as we awaited the matches for the night session.....
The most eagerly anticipated match of the night was undoubtedly Lin Dan vs Taufik Hidayat. However, since I am not a big fan of Taufik, I chose to go to the other court and supported Flandy/Vita But first, it was Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto facing the tricky Polish pair Michal Logosz/Robert Mateusiak. It turned out to be a mis-match as the INA pair was in irresistable form, especially Luluk. The Polish pair was not allowed to even regroup and they made lots of simple errors. Luluk's serves were also quite impressive in the past two days, yielding lots of points for the pair against Eriksen/Hansen and Logosz/Mateusiak. It was a comfortably win for the INA pair 21-6, 21-11. The match between Flandy Limpele/Vita Marissa and Lee Yong Dae/Lee Hyo Jung was also an interesting one. The score was neck-to-neck at 5-5 before the INA pair won 5 straight points to go into the interval at 11-5. Lee Hyo Jung was making so many errors in the early stage of the first set The INA pair never let the healthy advantage slip away as they piled on the pressure and won the first set 21-14. The Korean pair took the initiative in the second set and they had leads at 4-1 and then 9-5. Luckily, Flandy/Vita managed to level the score at 9-9, only to trail 9-11 at the break. The pattern continued until it was 14-13 for the Korean pair. This time, the INA pair won another 5 consecutive points to make it 18-14 and then 19-15. Just when we thought it would be over soon, the Korean pair came back to level the scores at 19-19. Flandy/Vita decided not to play rubber-set as they closed out the second set 21-19. It will be an all-INA affair in the Mixed Doubles Semi-Final. As for the Taufik match, I only watched some portion and I only knew he let slip of a 10-3 advantage in the second set, letting Lin Dan winning 10 straight points and the two-times World Champions won the match comfortably 21-12, 21-14. The penultimate match was the MD match between the World No 1 Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong and the 2000 Olympics Gold Winner Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya. It was an interesting and high-tempo match, with many entertaining displays from both pairs. The MAS pair had the advantage in the first set, taking it pretty comfortably at 21-11. However, the veteran pair was never giving up as they piled on attacks after attacks from the second set onwards. They deserved to win the next two sets 21-12, 21-11. Koo/Tan simply couldn't cope with the pressure by the veteran pair. That would be my review for today.....only 1 real match to watch tomorrow...the match between Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan (2007 World Champions) and Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun (2006 All-England and World Champions).
A minor correction. CY/FHF is 2005 AE Champion, in 2006 AE they got slashed by the MAS pair Faruiz/Lin 15:3, 15:6. And that's start of the rise of Rexy and his boys.
I think I have answered the question, TH did not dissapoint me..LD was fit and too good for TH last nite....he played better than first 2 matches... XXF, of course, cheering for LD and I did for TH... actually we talked before the match...I congratulated her and she said something " nice" about TH...
Maybe XXF is also an admirer of TH Too bad Taufik is not avail, else we could see two great badminton rivals fighting for a same girl
