Lin Dan dropped out of Asian Games Individual Squad as Head Coach Xia Xuanze believes Chen Long has been performing better this year.
Is that for real? Because CL's world ranking is higher than LD's? Or because Head Coach is sure LD will get the WC title this year?
Though Lin Dan's name is not in the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 Individual Event, he is in the team event together with Chen Long, Shi Yuqi,and Qiao Bin as well as doubles players, Zhang Nan, Li Junhui, Liu Yuchen, Wang Yilu, Zheng Siwei and Liu Cheng For the AG MS individual event , the selectees are Chen Long and Shi Yuqi. According to this article, http://sports.qq.com/a/20180725/041174.htm , the selection is simply based on world ranking where the two higher ranked players qualify, viz., Shi Yuqi is WR3, Chen Long WR8 and Lin Dan WR9. I'll post the entire lineup for CHN in both the Team and Individual Events in the Chinese Badminton thread.
If only Lin Dan had a R1 bye, then his prospects to the Nanjing WC Final would improve a bit, playing five rounds instead of six. As it is, Shi Yuqi in R3 and then probably Viktor or, less likely, Chen Long, in the semifinals, would drain him a fair bit, win or lose, not to mention his posible QFs opponent who may pose a significant challenge to his quest. That's why, unlike Peter Gade, I don't give Lin Dan much of a chance to progress to the final, much less win it. I mean, I'd be delusional to disregard or play down the ravages of age, his suspect fitness/stamina and recent lackluster form as indications of major obstacles to his campaign for his sixth world title. I repeat, don't forget how he flopped at the final hurdle in the two previous title bouts, the Glasgow WC'17 and the All England '18. Even in the 2017/18 CBSL team event, he actually lost to Huang Yuxiang, which cost his team Qingdao a place in the final. Let's face it, for someone who has been there and done that so many times, the motivation, the fire and hunger, to do it all over again, is just not there, never the same whether he admits or realizes it or not. True, as some of us believe, Lin Dan nowadays only goes for the majors but the question is when or what was the last major title he acquired, the 2014 Incheon Asian Games about 4 years ago, unless you regard the 2016 AE as a mini-WC worthy of a major status (a controversial claim) ? Also isn't it telling that he has too many early exits in the non-major but still prestigious tourneys, such as WTS1000, WTS750 and WTS500 events where practically all top-notch players are in attendance, the kind of performance is plainly unflattering, mediocre, to say the least, for a consistently top 10 world ranked player? And to think that the only BWF title he won in the last 17 months or so is the small (or mid-level, equivalent to GPG in the old tournament structure) New Zealand Open WTS300 event in May. Not only that, his perpetual rival and peer, LCW, who is 35 going 36 years old, has been most impressive and upstaged him the last several months, stealing the limelight from him and everyone else. On another note, I'm aware there are alternative views, even conspiracy theories, of Lin Dan's indifferent results, esp in the run-up to important tournaments such as the Thomas Cup, the Asian Games, and the World Championships. For the two team majors, it's thought it has to do with Lin Dan needing to stay below Chen Long and Shi Yuqi in world ranking so as to facilitate his playing the MS3 role to boost Team China's chances at the two team majors. As for his less than ideal form prior to the world championships, it's his way of hiding his true form or not revealing his cards too much in order to prevent his rivals from preparing well against him and, perhaps, also allow him to spring a surprise on them. While these reasons or speculations do sound plausible, and I won't rule them out completely, we , however, cannot deny the fact that his last major victory was in the 2014 Incheon AG, after which his tournament results have been mixed, occasionally good, even briefly brilliant, sometimes so-so but mostly below average, at times embarrassing and humiliating, for someone his standing. By the way, he wasn't awarded a wild card for the 2014 WC, so there's no knowing if he might have succeeded in crowning himself world champion for the sixth time there and then. Who knows. Therefore, if I simply let his results speak for themselves these past four years, not only the last six months, then objectively speaking, to be realistic, I'd be in denial and delusional not to admit that from 2015 onward, Lin Dan has been on the downward trajectory as 2015 marked the worst year in his illustrious career with 12 defeats ( or was it 16 ?) to various opponents, some twice, and most of whom were players he's expected to beat in normal times. Then followed the 2016 Rio Olympics where he lost for the first time to LCW , his perpetual archrival, in a major tournament , albeit at the semifinals narrowly on deuce in a three-setter, and , to rub salt on his wounds, he even failed to win the bronze playoff with Viktor Axelsen for a consolation prize, that despite capturing the All England title for the sixth time in March earlier. Come 2017, he again failed to win a major title, entering his record 7th World Championship Final but faltered at the last hurdle to the 10 years younger Dane, Viktor Axelsen. The only bright spot for him was his defeat of LCW at the final of the MAS Open Superseries Premier in April for the first time, thus breaking the so-called South-east Asia jinx of never having won a single individual title of note in the region. Since then for the last 15 months till today in 2018, the only title win for him was the newly structured BWF Grade 2 Level 5 WTS300 New Zealand Open which he participated in for the first time, equivalent to the Grand Prix Gold level event formerly. To sum up, the numbers don't lie, not only did he not win any major title since the 2014 AG gold, the number of titles he garnered overall for the period to date can be counted on the fingers of two hands, only 7 in nearly 4 years !? If that is not a sure sign of Lin Dan's significant decline, I don't know what is. Of course, it's not impossible but fairly improbable for Lin Dan to give us , his ardent fans, a big pleasant surprise by emerging victorious at the Nanjing World Championships on home soil. Should that happen, I'll gladly be the first to eat my words with alacrity.
Lin Dan attended an event that was actually scheduled for Lee Chong Wei. Lin Dan : ''Lee and I have been opponents and friends for more than 10 years, from youngsters to men and now being fathers, we are still perserving on the court. I am honoured to have such an opponent in my career life. It is such a great loss for badminton with the absence of Lee from World Championships 2018 and Asian Games due to his health problem. As an opponent and as a friend, I hope for his speedy recovery and wish to see him soon on the court.'' Later Lee Chong Wei thanked Lin Dan for attending his event and wished him Good Luck for the World Championships
I see LD has one of his five stars blue now. Anyone got an explanation for this? Surely he's not 'missing' a star? Edit: okay my bad, all of the stars actually are blue
The new collection is due to release in China in September. Dark maroon series with rainbow accents. EDIT: lol now @Nine Tailed Fox 's gonna like this..... caption going like maybe "despite being GOAT the GOAT still does his hands on and applies his stencil HIMSELF, shame on ROTW, meeehtherfackers!!" or something....
And they will not, ever. His kit is from Yonex; the rest are from Li Ning. Different sponsors fundamentally already. CBA have set the one and only precedence that LD can have an individual sponsor, no one before has this, and no one after will be able to.
@Nine Tailed Fox , Mate, as long as Lin Dan himself has not given up, so shouldn't you retire from this forum. The man himself, The GOAT, has said at the post-match conference, " This will not be my last world championships,", and bluntly added, " It's not over yet ". He also specifically mentioned that there are 6 or 7 more tournaments to play by year end and he will try his best to improve his world ranking. Yeah, he wants to fight on. Why aren't you ? Cheers. Stay on. He even asked his old foe and longtime friend,LCW, to take his time and recover from his illness before coming back as there is still time before Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
@Nine Tailed Fox Lol... Please migrate over and join us in Momota's thread... Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
