Japan Open draw released

Sorry if this has been answered before, but is Taufik playing then? Has he overcome his injury?

Joe P.

 

Haha, yes, when I saw the draw, I got quite excited at the prospects, but then one of my friends insisted that he was still injured and since he keeps up to date with the news at home more than I do, I wasn't sure if this draw reflects his current fitness state.

But I'll gladly take your word for it

Go Taufik!

Joe P.

 

nice summary with your juicy hypothetical matches hcyong

 

By the look of the draw and barring any injuries/early upsets, I hope to finally see Fu/Cai against Candra/Sigit in the Final..Too bad, if they meet each other, Candra/Sigit will have to meet Luluk/Alven as early as the QF..

 

Barring any injuries/early upsets, it looks like it could be a rematch of the Swiss Open Final : Robertson/Emms vs. Widianto/Natsir in the Final..Unless of course Gao/Zhang can step up and beat the English pair in the QF..

 

Yes!!This is what everyone is and will be expecting..Not to undervalue the othe other players, but anything less will probably be a "less attractive" match...Just look at the poster boy of the this year's Japan Open himself, Taufik...Hope he's healthy or if not at least close to 100% and ready to go and can show some good games...On that note, i have a gut feeling he'll reach the Finals as he is positioned in a different group-away from BCL and playing against players he's more comfortable with (ie. Gade, ChenHong)-add to that the prize money which will be quite high and I'm sure he could be thinking of that extra money he'll get back home if he wins it...

Hopefully the Japanese can figure out how to broadcast the games live just like in Swiss Open-it's quite "embarrassing" if a 5* event like Japan Open can't even do that and be "surpassed" technology-wise by a 3* event..Esp. if it's also played in Japan..

 

Taufik is not comfortable playing Gade... he's trailing 2-7 in their head to head

 

Yes, i notice that. But not to sound like I'm giving "excuses", but i notice most if not all of Taufik's losses came when he played against PGade either in Denmark or England(Europe), 7 times to be specific. Also, out of those 9 meetings, i think the only ones that should "count" are only 7 of them, as the other 2 meetings were just Invitation event. The only time Gade beat Taufik outside of England/Denmark(Europe) was in Taipei at the 2000 Chinese Taipei Open.
(In general and as mentioned few times, Taufik for some reason tends to "struggle" to win any tournaments that is held outside of Asia, esp. "big tourneys"(AE, WC), until last year in Athens).

Since that win in Taipei, and for numerous reasons, they actually never played against each other from 2000 til 2004(@ last year's OG)..

Anyway, we(at least myself) shall see how Taufik is progressing and ready. Hope both of them can meet each other in the QF..

 

agree... I think its due to Gades injury and Taufiks loose of motivation that they only met twice since 2000.. Right now at their best I would rate Taufik to win but I have my doubt about Gae getting through Xia.. Taufik will if he's at his best win the tournament in my opinion. Gade at his best can also do it along with Lin Dan, Chen Hong and as a dark horse Hafiz and KJ

 

taufik said in an interview that he didnt have any targets in jo, but he would try his best, becos he said that even tho his injury was getting better, he couldnt guarantee that his condition would go back to normal while playing
that doesnt sound so good

so dont lift your hopes high about him yet guys, but wish him all the best anyway

 

hcyHong, thanks for putting together all disciplinies and cmmenting on them.

A word about the Chinese players.

MS ChenJin and GongWJ are being readied poste-haste to replace Xia and ChenY. Xia lost last night to Susilo in 3 after beating KuanBH in 3. No doubt Susilo is a giant killer (Bao in Japan, Lin in Athens and now Xia) and Kuan is Malaysia's best young hope, but Xia has done little since the WC.Chen hasn't been in a SF for a while.

WS China is looking for successors to the big 3, who might all go after the WC. Luckily XieXf emerged, but there is no one after that. The 2004 WJC group were decimated in Siam. The older ZhuLin, LuLan and JiangYj are in the Japan Q's. Chen Lanting, WangRong, Chen Li (not in Japan) have not done well either. Maybe that is why GongR's request to retire after the O' was refused and she is sulking. Hence her absence.

MD China badly needs a 3rd/4th pair as Zheng/Sang are stagnating. Xie/Guo WJC 2000/2002 are favourites but they faced the top seeds in Siam in Rd 1 and will play the top seed in Rd 2 in Japan. Others: Hehanbin (from WJC 2004) and HeHanjing and a pair with a 2002 MD SF (Sun Junjie) but nothing worked.

WD GaoL is going after the WC so China needs a 3rd pair.ZhangD/ZhangYw were world No.4 in January but lost their rank due to absence from the German, AE and Swiss.Yawen (with WeiYl) was WD WJC 2000 and was in the top 3 pairs till Huang Nanyan retired and a reshuffle brought ZhaoTT in and dislodged Yawen. Du/Yu are from 2002 WJC and can wait till Gao. goes

XD China is dangerously weak. Gao/Zhang are spent and will go after the WC. ChenQq/ZhaoTt, sole survivors of the trials before 2003 WC involving WangWei, ChengRui, ZhangWei, are good but not tops. Chen, 27 is likely to go after the WC. Sang Yang/ZhangYw, 2000 XD WJC, also played v well in 2002/3 but Sang had to focus on the MD and that ended. Now Zhengbo (R-u 2000 XD with WeiYl) is plaired with Huang Sui preparing for life after GaoL. Xie/ZhangYw or Xie/Yu for NO.3 ? Then GuoZhendong/Du? The first pair are in top 20s but didn't play many matches.Yu, XD WJC 2002 with Guo played with Xie till the Siam Open, when Zhang took over and continues with him in Japan. Yu is not in Japan.

Predictions
Ms Lin Dan, WS XieXinfeng WD Yang/zhang, MD Cai/Fu XD Lee/Lee
I certainly do not expect China to end up empty-handed like in 2004.

Y

 

MD. 2 pairs in MD for China are more than enough. Compare when they didn't had any good pair 3 years ago. Sang/Zheng didn't play bad at all. Although lately their results mostly QF but they only lost to other strong doubles . Just need some time to improving. Not all couples can rise as fast as Cai/Fu. Even Lars/Jonas who play doubles for years emerged 2 years ago at the World Championship.

XD. The solution is real easy. Just pick one of their strongest MD players. Between Cai , Fu, Sang and Zheng. Pick one of them and pair with one of the WD top players. Within time, they will become one of the top XD pair. Never know why the China never do that except this time they pair Zheng Bo with Huang Sui. Hope they do it consistently. And dind't split the pair real fast.

Like Xie Zhong Bo/ Du Jing only play for 2-3 tournaments and they changed it with Xie and Zhang Ya Wen. How the pair will play great together if they split up them all times.

 

HCPoirot

Since 1996 when GaoL/YangWei were WD WJC, China has switched partners for all the WJC/R-u in MD,WD, XD. XieXF/ZhangZw and Huang Sui/GongRuinai 1998 WJC&R-U. Zhang Yawen/WeiYli and ZhaoTt/LiYujia (now S'porean) 2000 WD WJC/R-u YuYang and Du Jing (2002) had other parnters like the men, XieZB, (2000), GuoZD, Sun Junjie (2002) in the MD and XD. XD WJC GuoZD/Yu (2002) He Hanbin/TianQing (2004) were also separated.All women found new partners;half the men were dropped. Sang/Zheng are the only pair intact from WJC days - an indication of China's MD prroblem.

MD I disagree that 2 MD pairs suffices. Danmark, Indo'sia, Korea have 3/5 pairs (some v old) in the 5* main draws. Both China's pairs are under 25 but she needs a back-up for injury/rotation and to remove rivals from the draw, as team and mixed tournaments are pushed as an O' event. Cai-Fu rose rapidly but Alven/Luluk who started later,were even faster at one stage.
After 3 years and at 22/23 Sang/Zheng should be showing more.

XD If you watched China's failure to find a 2nd XD pair in 2002/3, you'll realize that XD is NOT 'easy' as you say - just pair x with y etc! XD is special. SangY/ZhangYw and Zhengbo/WeiYl, WJC/R-U, 2000 could have played the s. circuit immediately like the MS, MD and WD of 2000 WJC. Though Sang/ Zhang played well in 2002/3 they were dropped so Sang could focus on the 2nd MD, as China needed it more than the 2nd XD where Liu/Ge and Zhang/Gao had dominated.
Actually XieZb/ZhangYw were in the senior circuit when Yu (not Du) was still a junior. When Du/Yu WD emerged, Yu/Xie for XD was possible if they are in the same tournament. Guo/Du have not played lately.I hope ZhangYw gets a slot as she lost a place in XD from strategic planning and in WD due to her youth. She'd just turned 17 when she won both WJC WD and XD in 2000.

NB there is a Korean XD in the main draw who are 16 and 17?

Y