Lol, has to overcome serve faults by serving legally. And overcoming GC's commentary?? What? How I bet he has no idea what she says when commentating anyway
Yes，folks are saying too much about GC, it is not such a problem. Perhaps having only one commentator for all the tourneys for so many years is one
'considered Greatest Ever by many,but not in my opinion as I am bit reluctant to compare eras"...Then went on to give five minutes explaination why so....Japan Open Final.... I think against his clash with H.K Vittinghus,she said something to this point again reminding audiences....Last year Australian Open.....and it's not just these two-three....i have heard something like this so many time...He is this BUT...... No need Gill,let the viewers decide he is or he is not........Just imagine a pro LD commentator always mentioning before LCW matches....''Never won World Championships,Asian Games,Olympics''...ok if he hasn't,do you need to remind it everytime...... said that ''he wins many matches on respect'' against Momota in ALL ENGLAND......Just stop saying these things being the sole voice of Badminton......commentators in Tennis have nothing but pure respect for Federer and never seen them making such controversial statements..
I don't quite agree, CCTV sport commentators, as far as badminton is concerned (don't want to bring in other sports here), isn't as sino-centric as you thought, certainly much better than Fox news. For example, just to name one, Hong Gang, a regular, openly admires and often sings the praises of LCW, including written articles, significantly more than Lin Dan and is even known to have said he considered Susi Susanti the greatest WS. Other well-known ones like Gong Weijie, Zhao Tingting, Zhao Jianhua, are widely regarded as highly professional, fair and balanced in their expert commentaries.
Talking about Lin Dan's service faults, remember his previous match with JOJ at the MAS Open'15 PSS where the umpire faulted him (for stepping on the court divider, if I recall correctly) twice or so in succession which annoyed and appeared to have affected LD so much that he lost G2 tamely before pulling himself together to come back and win the decider ? That unusual, dubious incident evoked a flurry of heated discussion in the tournament thread then. At the JPN Open, LD was faulted twice for serving above the waistline when flicking, I'd say it is arguable and subjective of the service judge's decisions. But that's not the main point of tsae75's view, he was pointing out that VA's expression (outburst?) of displeasure smacking the net twice and flinging his racquet high in the air in frustration were not deemed as deserving of a warning by the umpire that is the issue. Anyway, I'd just let it be, not a big deal. However, at the same JPN Open, in the semifinal, both LD and Tommy were repeatedly warned by the umpire for time-wasting but in the end only Tommy was issued a yellow card at the last instance, this incident was considered an unfair and biased umpiring. Just saying.
the best commentators on CCTV were XXF and Bao CL during WC2013 in Guangzhou. Their commentaries on LD vs LCW were unforgettable.
Fair enough. Maybe I've listened to her so long that I don't really notice anymore. Have to agree, she is clearly LCW-biased. Still, I think that there is some truth in that. Somehow I feel that he sometimes wins matches on pure reputation, because his opponents don't "dare" to attack him or put enough pressure.
Gillian Clark is just a joke, there is nothing subtle about her bias towards LCW compared to any other player in the world, along with Morten Frost, She clearly has short term memory problems, all is just salty in general.
No, no, Hong Gang can of course praise the greats like PG or LCW or others, but sometimes during a match involving one Chinese player he can talk for a whole game about this player, what happens in CHN team, etc., without even mentioning the action under our nose. He is so rambling
But this also comes from the language barrier. When one can communicate in the bus, at lunch, in the hotel lobby, all year around, with some players, and never with others because of the languaga barrier, it has consequences but I would not call them sinophobia or anything as heavy as that.
I once said he's more of a storyteller than a sport commentator, he's not a badminton expert, that's why the organizer often pairs him with someone like Gong Weijie who gives us keen insights into the match, the technical aspects. Yes, Hong Gang tends to ramble on non-stop (eg narratives, anecdotes and background information,player's profile,biodata, trivia, etc) when alone but with someone like Gong Weijie co-commentating to provide technical analysis, they complement each other. However, as pcll99 pointed out, sometimes special guests are invited,eg Xie Xingfang, Bao Chunlai, Wang Xin, Zhano Jianhua, Sun Jun, Gao Ling, and other famous personalities - they are memorable, refreshing, entertaining,edifying, insightful, even amusing, everything that badminton viewers, aficionados, enthusiasts as well as the casual, recreational players really enjoy and appreciate.
