i've been watching the olympics tapes lately. i was watching the MS semis and finals with Ji vs Gade, Xia vs. Hendrawan and Ji vs. Hendrawan. i noticed how the two top Chinese players are opposite in style. Xia is a an offensive player, with very nice sharp jumpsmashs. he "plays with the shuttle", stylish fancy shots, kind of like Dong Jiong. however, he appeared to be lacking with fitness, and perhaps too offensive at the cost of endurance. in the semi, Hendrawan was obviously the smarter player, solid defense against Xia and plays with Xia pace, tiring out Xia at the end. in the opening of the game, Xia lost a few points doing his fancy shots. i wonder if he'd be better off just playing it solid. Ji on the other hand, was much more solid. amazing fitness, didn't notice him tiring out after the semi nor the final. in fact, the more he plays, the stronger he got. he worked very hard, always gets to the shuttle early. a well round, patient player with mix of running shots and offensive at appropriate times. also with guts and skills, often challenging Hendrawan at the net, and sometimes winning it. (Xia did try too, but often got beaten by Hendrawan) i base on comment on solely the olympics alone though. btw, i read Ji and Gong played a match against each other, Gong won with the limitation that Ji wasn't allowed to smash. anyone have any thoughts on this?
I have seen all three of Hendrawen's Olympic matches. In the Q/F Sun Jun tried to take on Hendrawen at the net many times. He was successful some of the time and it was a close first game. The were many probing rallies as well. Sun jun lost in the second game partly because of stamina problems. It was sad to see his last match end like this. The S/F with Xia largely followed the same vein as the Thomas cup match except that Xia could not win the first game in the Olympics. He manged to hit through Hendrawen on a few occasions but only after expending a lot of energy. Thus, later on he was lost for ideas. Xia also tried to play around at the net and lost control of the rally as a result. Xia also palyed some rallies but couldn;t last out. What could he do in the end? Xia is probably as fit as Ji but it's the style of play that's more exhausting. I am not sure that Xia playing a patient game would be better. Remeber Liem Swee King or Arbi? Tell them to keep rallying a shuttle around like Morten Frost would result in losing a game more often. In the final, Ji was quite more solid. Played much less around the net when Hendrawen was near the net. Actually of the situations when Ji did play around the net with Hendrawen near the net, Hendrawen managed to get the intiative back. A lot of times Ji tended to play net shots only when Hendrewen was quite far away from the net and therefore Hendrawen could not utilise his spinning net shots so effectively. Taking this aspect out of Hendrawen's game contributed to his unforced errors. Infact I was surprised to see Hendrawen make so many mistakes in the first game. He obviously got his act back to together in the second game but Ji reverted to his original game plan again and stopped playng around the net.
saw those tapes too. Xia is sometime not patience enough by going for the quicky point. Hendrawan is a patience defender type mostly and frustrated Xia. Ji played the right game plan against hendrawan. Ji is taller so he in put some long rallies. Ji is also smart by knowing when to attack and smash, switching on and off, making Hendrawan guessing ji moves much harder. On the topic of gong vs ji. I saw gong playing C. martin. Gong has exceptional shot making accuracy and consistent too , both back corners and drops. On clear and drops(no smash), i have to give it to gong. Ji loose by unforce errors.
Probabbly same reasons why Yang Yang, Sun Jun, Xiong Guo Bao , Morten and maybe Gade always win whilst Zhao Jian Hua seems to lose unnecessarily but did he pull in the crowds and sell tickets !
I disagree, i rank zhao jian hua up there with other legends you mentioned. Look at zhao's key titles: YEAR TOURNAMENT VENUE 1985 ALL ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS U.K. 1985 JAPAN OPEN JAPAN 1985 ASIA BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS MALAYSIA 1986 MALAYSIA OPEN MALAYSIA 1986 ASIAN GAMES CHINA 1987 CHINA OPEN CHINA 1987 THAILAND OPEN THAILAND 1987 WORLD CUP MALAYSIA 1987 SINGAPORE OPEN SINGAPORE 1988 THOMAS CUP MALAYSIA 1990 ALL ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS U.K. 1990 THOMAS CUP JAPAN 1990 ASIAN GAMES CHINA 1991 WORLD BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS DENMARK 1991 WORLD GRAND PRIX FINALS MALAYSIA I dont call that losing unnecessarily.
No doubt about it, he is probably the best and most talented. Did you ever see the way he played in some matches like 1992 all england final, 1992 Thomas cup semis,or 1991 ae semis?
