Lin Dan is behaving like a semi-retired pro who places his family first and wants to spend more time with them, and only wants to do the minimum necessary to keep going until he finally retires. Seriously, I'd much rather he gives his one last best shot next year, hopefully culminating in the World Championships and/or the Asian Games to go out with a bang and then announce his official retirement rather than drag on till 2020 hoping to earn one of the two tickets to Tokyo while being inflicted embarrassing defeats one after another. As an ardent Lin Dan fan, it really pains me to see him finally forced to quit under unflattering circumstances. Meanwhile, I loathe to see a repeat of his 2015's most humiliating underperformance, the nadir of his awe-inspiring, unmatched career. In fact, during 2015, I actually wished he had retired after capturing the Incheon'14 Asian Games gold.
He cant motivate himself for these two-a-penny tournaments. I do hope he wins the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold. I pray to god, he manages to motivate himself for that. Fingers crossed.
Even LCW is grinding Day in Day out. Catching one flight after another to play in Denmark, France, Russia wherever he gets the oppurtunity to do so. And Lin Dan can't even perform in China Open?
I'm as disheartened as you are. Imagine, on home soil in front of his fellow countryfolk and he put up a such a dismal performance to go out in R1 losing to a player he is expected to beat which he actually could if he had taken it more seriously. Apparently, he was physically and mentally unprepared for this significant tournament, and even gave a lame excuse in the post-match interview. Frankly, I was so much looking forward to seeing him take on LCW at the QFs, then VA at the semis not sure who he'd meet in the final but I'd be simply gratified if he could best those two. Alas, it turned out to be such a huge letdown. Even the way he played and lost to JC was such a bummer, most of the time he was just moving his opponent around and lifting with only the occasional attacks while he was often on the receiving end of JC's power smashes that either sent him reeling or stranded. A pathetic sight. Now I'm worried the same scenario may be repeated when he goes to Hong Kong with his family, another early holiday tour. I afraid bringing along his one-year-old son who doesn't understand anything that's going on is unhelpful to him, more of a distraction than motivation as he will be meeting up with his family practically every day, dining with them, playing with the baby. It might be better to wait until Xiao Yu is old enough to talk and watch him play, then it may raise his spirits and spur him on as he competes in front of him. I don't know. Originally, I had thought Xie Xingfang and baby Xiao Yu 's presence would serve to uplift him, but, sadly, it didn't happen as I had hoped for, instead it was the reverse. Well, let's see how it goes in Hong Kong, I'm not holding my breath though.
He will have to quit sooner rather than later. Shi Yuqi is gathering pace and confidence and Chen Long just needs his defence to wake up to clinch major titles.... It won't be too long when Xia Xuanze gets fed up and tell him he has no place in the National team. There is no such thing as not picking racket for 3 months and then produce this abysmal performance on the court as CHN march towards Tokyo.
Zhang Jun has made sweeping reforms, revamping the entire doubles department, and it seems to pay some dividends already in the opening round of the ongoing China Open, eg, notable victories by XD Zhang Nan/Liu Xuanxuan over Jordan/Susanto, WD Du Yue/Li Yinhui over Fukuman/Yonao, MD Zheng Siwei/He Jiting over Kamura/Sonoda. Xia Xuanze will be hard put to do likewise, as in the very first round of the main draw, so many CHN MS and WS have fallen by the wayside. The pressure is mounting for him and his coaching team to come up with something soon.
You know, in 2015, Li Yongbo dared to threaten Lin Dan , no going to Rio Olympics for him if his ranking fell below two of his compatriots. I hope Xia Xuanze do the same to him for Tokyo 2020, warn him early, don't give him false hope, wake him up, shake him up. I feel that XXZ is too lenient with him. Time to put his foot down and give Lin Dan a jolt.
I think so too, he is such a pleasant, unassuming person, soft-spoken, quiet and good-natured, in my opinion. Besides, he is only four years older than Lin Dan and they were once teammates and rivals in their younger days. Even after he became Lin Dan's coach, they behave more like buddies than coach-student relationship, it'll be hard for him to be tough on Lin Dan, can be very awkward. Still, I feel XXZ can try to be firm and fair with him, explain his situation to him, give him a good talking-to, if necessary, remind him they both have their roles and responsibilities to fulfil , their contributions to make for Team China, the same for everyone.
For me, the frustration is just not about China Open. He blew the oppurtunity to qualify for year ending SSF. (could have easily.) Could have been World Number 1 had he beaten SWH in Japan coupled with a decent showing in Denmark and France. But even at the cost of all these... I was content he would show up big time in China....but what a slap.
I can't believe all of you guys, this man is the KING, the one we all look up to. All the players I saw in an earlier post as being better than LD aren't better than him, they are in better form than him, that's all. Form is temporary, class is permanent. LD still has the fire to play, and that is more than enough. We saw the same sort of thing in 2015, but then what happened in 2016, one can argue he was the best player coming into the Olympics (Steen Pedersen had him as pre-Olympics favourite), we will see a resurgence from both LD and LCW, maybe CL as well, Ala Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
Lin dan is old liao la, he doesn't have the enough fire in him to win . losing at home in round 2 is unacceptable.
LD lost. Not fun for us obviously, but let's not annul his efforts and achievement this year just because of that. I think he's still bummed out after the WC final loss. I think he'll be back. In fact, I have more confidence in LD coming back than in CL.
Not just technically stronger than LD, but even tactically leagues ahead of LD. I am even thinking of adding Brice Leverdez in that '18 Players better than Lin Dan' list but the only thing that is stopping me is his personal record against LD is very poor. Often struggling to score 10 points against him. @lippro Should i add Leverdez to that list?
Oh Brother! Don't allow me to dwell on the past unless you want this list to become '100 Players which make LD look like peasant'..Ahhhghhcough...,
Tactically leagues ahead? Now that is laughable. LD is playing with fewer weapons in his arsenal than the young guys. To come anywhere close at the world stage, you're going to need a brain. He's not the 2009 LD who can leap a full diagonal in one movement and play a 350kph+ smash every point. He could still do the movement, but not pacing himself over a match is not tactically very sound, especially when injury is just around the corner for him. If you watch his recent victories, the strategy is similar - LD tries to prolong a match to the third set and wears his opponents down with solid defence and efficient movement. Three set matches are common now. The pressure is on the attacker who has the natural advantage in being able to dictate the attack on his terms, but the disadvantage of having to expend a significant amount more energy. If the attacker can overcome the pressure, then LDs tactic struggles.
