In Korea Open.. Koreans are seeking another win over Chinese National Team.. Because only 2 Chinese Players Anyway.. Lee-Hyun-Il is seeking another win in mens single Kim Dong-Mun, Ha Ta-Kwun is seeking win in Mens Double Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Dong-Sung is another contender for Mens Doubles Kim Dong-Mun, Ra Kyung Min is seeking a win in Mixed Doubles again.. Hiiiii.. So so I was expecting another great matches between Korea and China but its not gonna happen just like how it did in Swiss Open.. Anyway good luck to all the players participating...
Shouldn't this be in the 2003 Tournament's Section? But anyway, China is making a smart move resting their WC lineup. They don't want anybody injured one month prior to event. Besides, the Korea vs China (Sudirman revenge) in a sense took place already at the Japan Open which finished today. And we all know who went on top. Ie. XD: Zhang/Gao bt. rivals Kim/Ra, Sang/Zhang bt Kim/Lee WD: Gao/Huang, Wei/Zhao bting top 2 Korean WD. WS: Zhou bt Kim, Gong bt Bae And Lee Hyun Il couldn't get far enough this time around to face Chinese MS - lost to PG in round of 16. The next time they face off will be the World Championships in May.
I do not see any Chinese players in the MS draw. Looks like they are resting the entire team including Chen Yu, who will not be playing in WC. Only notable Chinese is Dai Yun in WS. err... I thought Dai Yun supposed to have retired? Thought have read about this several months back...
Apparently, Dai Yun is participating in small tournaments like Thailand Open, French Open, etc. unless the big Chinese is not going. She is also now sponsored by Kason, it seems. Still a decent WS player even in her age.
But resting their players for the WC will also have its disadvantage. They will not gain the ranking points that their rivals would gain during the Korean Open, thus they may not have a good seeding.
Yes, but really one tournament will not make the Chinese decline much on the rankings. With the Japan Open results, Chen Hong is still world #1 and Xia is now world #2. They will remain in that approximate region even after Korea Open. In WS, all 4 Chinese ladies are in top 8 and they have gained more points at Japan Open. They're not going anywhere. In WD, Gao/Huang are at least two full 5* tournaments (point-wise) ahead of #2 pair. XD, Zhang/Gao jumped to around #4 on world ranking after JP Open. So, China doesn't need to be sweating over ranking points lost. It's better to be on the safe side than on the sorry side.
good analysis by Hugo. and i agree, good move by the Chinese, they will have either more time to do their ritual closed door training or let the players take a rest from tournaments. on top of that, Chinese never liked playing in Korea anyway with the always questionable line judges and hostile crowd. european countries will like to play Japan/Korea Open back to back to save the travelling time, China is so close by geographically so that won't make any difference to them. another reason for the Chinese to stay home.
Another reason for playing in Japan is the sponsor probably requires it! (And I agree with all the above analyses)
Korea and Denmark must be lauded for their continued innovations to badminton. Japan may not be contributing in form of players but definitely in form of sponsors, perhaps Korea may also do this part. . I think the level of badminton displayed in this Sudirman Cup and J Open was the highest possible, even surpassing All-England. The success of East Asia is largely attributed to the intense rivalry within East Asian countries and amongst one another. The good news is that in Msia even Korean expatschildren are starting to take up the game !
A difficult assessment considering the 1999 SC with the epic LS/MS matches. That time the Danish crowd were louder than Kwun!
Supersports also showing K open in Msia/Sing, main concern is are we going to see World Champs held in EUROPE, just as in Sudirman. Right, Sudirman 1999 was tense and exciting, but I feel this year that level of play is better in Sudirman and J Open than AE esp from Chen Hong, Xia, Martin, Gade, Lee Hyun Il,Kim Dong Moon and the up and comung Chinese Doubles pair, and I believe can only get better in May.Tempting! And it is possible that some of the players have yet to peak!
comment to Hugo Concerning the possibility to gain valuable ranking points for the seedings at the WC, looks like the danish MS players are doing a fine job to improve their chances of a better WC by perhaps avoiding better seeded players...well too early to say quite yet, but if they make it through to the next round...see about that on thursday...K. jonassen, P. Rasmussen and A. Boesen might benefit from a good result in Korea....
