Taufik being flamboyant is definitely a HUGE STAR in the Badminton World.KKK and TBH will have hordes of teens following them.Lee Yong Dae,Chen JIn,SAnia and all the young upstarts will provide the impetus to propel the popularity of badminton.Long Live BWF SUPER SERIES>No Money No Talk.
Badminton: No more nationality separation 18 Dec 2006 K.M. Boopathy --------------------------------------------------------------------------THE Badminton World Federation (BWF) is doing away with the nationality separation policy in determining the draw for next year’s Super Series. This means that a meeting between World No 1 Lin Dan of China and his compatriot Chen Hong or a rare meeting between Lee Chong Wei and Hafiz Hashim in the preliminary round will be a norm once the Super Series gets underway with the Malaysia Open on Jan 16-21 next year. BWF had previously separated the top two players from the same nation in different halves and this avoids the players from meeting until the final. However, BWF is adopting a similar approach to tennis where the world rankings are only used to determine seedings and draw. BWF deputy president Datuk Punch Gunalan stressed that the move will ensure that the players approach the tournaments professionally. "There will be no more nationality separation as we want to establish a professional level of competition among the players. The approach and organisation of the Super Series moves towards professionalism," said Gunalan after BWF’s council meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. "However, the ruling will only be implemented for the Super Series tournaments and in the Olympics, Asian Games, World Championships or other major events." The Malaysia Open will be the first tournament to witness the change of rule. The Super Series is a 12-leg tournament which offers a minimum of US$200,000 (RM711,080) in prize money for each leg. The series end with a Masters finals. The council had also decided to move BWF’s administration office from its current location at the KLBA Stadium in Cheras to Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara next year. Meanwhile, BA of Malaysia (BAM) secretary P. Ganga Rao’s role as BWF general manager was also made official yesterday and his tenure will begin effective Jan 1. Ganga, 44, who began his career as a financial executive with BAM in 1987, said that it was a privilege for him to serve BWF and BAM. However, Ganga said that he will still serve as BAM’s secretary and a change will only be determined by BAM president Datuk Nadzmi Salleh. "It is a privilege and also a challenge to serve BWF and it was a move that was inevitable. Having served the sport locally, the time is right to move on to the international level," said Ganga. "As for the position as the BAM secretary, I leave to Datuk Nadzmi to make a decision."
Now, are they trying to make LYB the star and topic of the sport... as we definitely will hear more people accuse him of fixing matches. BWF will never learn from their lessons in the past... first, Taufik... now LYB... Funny.. they mentioned about a possible match between LCW and Hafiz... like Hafiz stands a chance with his recent performance against LCW. Hafiz may help LCW beat his own record of saving 7 match points, but then LHI now has a saving 11 match points record...against Hafiz...
More on Super Series Reported in Star Sport, 19 Dec 2006: Malaysia lamented that its newly-crowned Asian Games men's badminton doubles pair of KKK and TBH will miss the the first leg of the SS in KL itself during the Malaysian Open from Jan 16-21, 2007. All because the pair is currently WR 119, faraway from the top 60 who will get direct entry into the SS. The top 28 will enter the main draw direct while the remaining 4 others will be chosen from the qualifying round involving a maximum of 32 players or pairs. (Therefore the qualifying round will be long and the competiton tough as players will have to fight hard for the 4 places in the main draw.) Replacements are only allowed if those ranked in the top 60 decide to withdraw and once the draw is made, there will be no replacements. Therefore the ranking of the players/pairs will be very important under the SS. Coach Rexy has reason to be dissappointed that the new pair of KKK/TBH will not be able to participate in the first SS because of their low ranking. So the pair may have to earn more WR points by playing in lower-ranked tournaments like the Satellites. But badminton fans will be all too eager to watch KKK/TBH in action in the SS!
Well, Maybe this will mean the new pair will get filthy rich enroute to qualifying for the SS by bagging lots of smaller tournaments. Unlike other higher ranked pairs, they have a perfect reason to play small tournaments and no shame about it Cheers!
Do you think any of the top 60 players will give the SS a miss to challenge KKK/TBH??? Or they take part in both tournaments, the SS and a lower ranked one? The rules do not prevent them from doing so, right?
Thats very tru Loh. There is no such rule. Just most will be very busy playing in the SS. I'm sure they will knock into Saputra once in a while TBBMBB(N)
Filthy rich? Haha. If it were possible in badminton, I don't think any player would bother with shame. That is what Lendl used to do in the early 80s. He went for several years as the top prize money earner in men's tennis without playing, and in some cases even entering, Grand Slam tournaments. This case is a very interesting one, however. In the past, the IBF used a virtual ranking system such that Tony and Candra, for example, ended up seeded in Korea despite having only 5,400 ranking points. Now, scratch pairings of top players won't even be allowed into the tournament. Granted, such a scratch pairing means that a spot at the top will open up but the rules will force a scratch pair to go to the back of the line behind a lot of lower-ranked pairs. So for example, in the Super Series, we're more likely to see Schoppe & Fogarty than Koo and Tan. Mind you, if they are really good, it shouldn't take long. If they still get 4200 points for winning a 4-star tournament, it won't even take four wins to get a team into the top 32.
Asiad Gold Medallists to compete in Malaysian Open Star Sports, 22 Dec 2006 Asian Games men's doubles gold medallists Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong will get to compete in the US$200,000 Malaysian Open after all. But they have to play in the qualifying tournament of the opening leg of the Super Series, which will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium (KLBA) from Jan 16-21. The withdrawals of players from the small badminton playing nations have given KKK-TBH, who are now ranked 119th in the world, a place in the qualifiers. The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary, P. Ganga Rao, said yesterday: "The closing date for the Open was on Wednesday. Most of the top pairs will feature in the tournament. "But some countries have decided to stay away and this has given KKK-TBH the chance to make it to the main draw from the qualifying tournament." Only the top 60 in the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) rankings in the respective events get direct entry into the Super Series. The top 28 go into the main draw while four others will come from the qualifying rounds, which involve a maximum of 32 players. Replacements are only allowed if those ranked in the top 60 decide to pull out. And once the draw is made, there can be no replacement. The BAM will announce the stars for the tournament soon.
glitches, glitches, glitches Badminton/Malaysia Open review: Super Series needs to be better 23 Jan 2007 K.M. BOOPATHY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE Badminton World Federation (BWF) launched its long-awaited Super Series but the organisation glitches of the first leg, the Malaysia Open badminton championships, did not help raise the profile of the sport. The 12-leg Super Series, was supposed to provide bigger prize money for the players and also make badminton television friendly. While the BWF may argue that teething problems are common in a new venture, this is not the first time badminton’s world governing body is organising an international tournament. Except for cosmetic changes where BWF has grouped the major grand prix tournaments under the Super Series brand, increased the total prize money of several tournaments, slightly modified the draw and seedings, there is nothing new. The first issue raised was on the eligibility rule for the main draw where only the top 28 players in the world gain automatic berths while another four must advance through qualifying rounds. However, lack of foresight on BWF’s part has seen the top 15 players competing in the first round, in the case of World No 1 Lin Dan of China and World No 12 Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. And doing away with the nationality separation rule saw players or pairs from the same country meeting each other in the preliminary rounds. China withdrew their top three shuttlers - World No 1 Zhang Ning, World No 2 Xie Xingfang and World No 8 Jiang Yanjiao - as they were expected to meet their back-up shuttlers in the preliminary rounds. The trend is set to continue as BWF is convinced that the formula provides for open competition but the fact is, countries may start sending their players to the smaller grand prix tournaments to earn ranking points. This is because the Super Series winners will gain 9,000 points while the grand prix winners gain 7,000 points and the disparity in points is little that the grand prix tournaments could be worth competing for newly ranked players and pairs like Malaysia Open champions Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong who played in the qualifying rounds in KL. The tournament schedule also breached BWF’s rule which does not allow matches to start after midnight. The organisers allocated four courts and with 40 matches scheduled on Thursday beginning 6pm, the matches were delayed for more than two hours. As a result, the last match of the day between World No 2 Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen of Denmark and Thailand’s Sudket Prakamol-Patapol Ngernsrisuk, scheduled to start at 10pm, only commenced approximately 12.45am. There was also no proper area to conduct interviews, with interviews conducted at corridors and this does not give the Super Series the high profile which BWF wants to create.
Not necessarily a bad thing. We all know Taufik is a top player, but who can say he cannot be drawn against Lin Dan when his own ranking is not enough? What if 16 seeds were allocated and Taufik was ranked 17 (and he is still drawn against Lin Dan)? It is all arbitrary. The elimination of the nationality separation rule in one of the positive things BWF has done (even though it may have adverse side effects). For the long term benefit of badminton, BWF must promote individuality. My own opinion is that BWF must do even more to reduce the importance of nationality. Nothing BWF can do about this, even if it is true. The withdrawal of Zhang Ning from Korea Open cannot be explained this way as she can only meet her first team-mate, Zhu Lin, in the semifinals. Even for Malaysia Open, both Xie and Zhang can only meet team-mates in the quarterfinals, which has not deterred their entry in the past. This, I agree. I believe there should be a wider gap. Also agreed. I believe this may be the folly of the Malaysian organisers who perhaps wanted more spectators during the Fri session. They should have started 2 hours earlier.
More to do with the MS & WS fields.. ..hmm, i think the most significant effect would be on the MS & WS events, where in previous yrs they had up to 64 players in the Main draw. The doubles events would, usually, had 32 pairs in the Main draw. Same as now. ..now, this baffles me a bit. How could the matches have gone past 12am?? So, going from 64 players to 32 players in the MS & WS events had prolonged the time schedule??..I thought it would shortened the time schedule instead??..
Mostly the impact is on MS. Previously, even in the rare case when the WS event is 64-draw, there will be a lot of byes. Even 64-draw MS events usually had some byes. The biggest impact is felt when only the top 8 players are seeded instead of the top 16. That is because in the MS, the 9-16 bracket players are very formidable. So currently, even the top players are worried by the impending draw. Previously, the top players are less worried because those outside the top 20 are less trouble. For me, there is good and bad. Lin Dan v Taufik in the very first round can be good or bad, depending on perspective. This is the organiser's fault. Knowing that there are 10 matches to finish per court, they still started the day at 6 pm. I see that in Korea they are not repeating the same mistake.
I don't know if this is technically possible or whether there are any weaknesses, but I feel that the draw for the qualifying rounds should be made on the morning of the qualifying day. From what I noticed, the qualifying draw is scattered with withdrawals, due to players being promoted to the main draw, or no-shows especially by players from Ghana, Nigeria or other dubious ones. The effect is that some players may be on the receiving end of unfair competition. For instance, in the KO qualifying, WCH had to play 3 rounds against fresh opponents. His 2nd round opponent had a first-round walkover, while his 3rd round opponent won both his opening rounds on walkover. Because the qualifying round is now relatively high calibre and because there could be three rounds to be played within a day, I feel that it is inevitable that some circumstances will occur to create unfairness. So, I think the qualifying draw should be made as late as possible, after some players got promoted to the main draw and after the organiser has ascertained who will take part and who will not.
http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/ranking/ranking.aspx?rid=32 Super Series ranking Interesting to note that in the doubles, they rank by individual player, not the pair as a unit. This way, if new partnership is formed, you still keep your points you scored with your old partner, and not start from zero.
I'm sure with more experience, the organizers should do a better job. The Korea Open appears to be run more smoothly, perhaps they have noted the MO shortcomings and prevented them from happening from day one. As for qualifiers who never turned up and caused some other qualifiers to struggle unnecessarily, maybe the BWF should penalise them, like not allowing them to participate in the SS for two or three consecutive events and/or have qualifying points deducted from them.
