Has the BWF finally got something right?? Massive excitement generated. Granted 2 MAS representatives in the finals helps. Looking forward to the KO.
football stadium??? are u sure????? its supposed to be more than a football stadium when comes to badminton.... haha its euphoric.. or maybe even more as well...
Malaysian Open Champions Congratulations to all the champions. Well done! Let's hope it'll bring the euphoria of badminton as enthusiastic as the Malaysian crowd. I've switched my id. rgds.
Great final!! MS : For the past two years, we've had unlikely winners. Last year with LCW coming from way behind to slay LD, and this year with Gade literally winning it from the hospital bed. Even Chinese walkover tactics (if any) didn't help, though I can't help feeling sorry for Bao. Also +ve performances from the oldies, Jonassen and WCH. Other MAS MS flopped badly, esp KBH. WS : Great inroads by WMC, though she fell at the final hurdle. What can I say, the Great Wall might crack over time (and illness), but it won't budge yet. It will be more difficult once ZN and XXF returns .... XD : Zheng Bo provides a lot of firepower to the equation, but it is Gao Ling who dominates! Nathan Robertson don't seem to be too fired up for the challenge. Moody player, I suppose. WD : Gao Ling is just GREAT!!! Definite female version of Professor Park Joo-bong with great tactical brain. Excellent performance by Indonesian and Professor Park's cute girls. Vita Marissa brings height and power to the equation, only equalled by Lee Hyo-Jung. Chinese girls were smart to push her out back in 2nd and 3rd games, but they now know that they are not invincible. MAS pair a big letdown, maybe Coach Cheah should get some pointers from Coach Rexy. MD : Excellent performance from both pairs. I only see a few unforced errors, esp from TBH late in the game. Most points were won on great placings/openings/drives, not on outright smashes. For once Malaysians dominated the net, not because Tony is not playing well, but because of KKK's better reaction speed. 2nd game was a thriller, point-for-point exchange until 8-8, and a late burst from INA-USA pair. Both pairs put other pairs to shame, MAS pair for being so young and successful and INA-US pair for their great run without having much training.
Moreover, Cai/Fu was already an established, celebrated pair (and potential world champions by that time - and they actually made it a month later) when they beat Tony/Chandra last year while Koo/Tan had only played their third tournament as a pair. So, my question for academic interest: If Koo were to partner his old pal Chan this time round, could they even make it to final, not to mention beating Tony/Chandra?
Hmmm.. ..from my observation(and memory) of the match, i thought it was Polii who was whipping her boomstick (as some of you in here might say) more and was the stable one??..While Marissa, on the other hand, was the "weaker" player and made more errors??..
wow! i had a blast watching the semi finals and the finals. actually only three finals cought my attention. the MS, MD and WS. as you might have guessed, i was not really interested in the mixed doubles and the WD since no malaysian played in the finals. so whoever won, i say good for them so congratulations Chinese teams. So starting with the MS, though i like both player, i was rooting for peter gade for two reasons. first, he was sick when he arrived and coming that far was an achievement on it's own and to watch him battle it out, fair and square with kenneth shows his determination. second, because the chinese did not play. i dont like that. be a sportsman and play. even with your countryman. you should battle it out fair and square. having extra rest is not fair. plus bao is younger than peter and thus it is twice unfair in my opinion. so i rooted for peter and i was so excited to see him clinched the title. good for you peter gade. i think both player did their best. a very exciting MS final. after peter gade won, i was rooting for mew choo in the WS. i know the chinese player is good but looking at how mew choo fight to the last point in the semi makes me see that there is a possibility for her to win. alas, she did her very best and as she made more mistakes than the chinese player, she lost. but i see a good future for her. a last, at least, malaysia, representated! hope she'll do well in other Opens. and last but never least, my current favourite doubles player (as with the rest of malaysian citizens) KKK and TBH. unlike WMC that i believe could win due to the home crowd on her side, i believe KKK and TBH could win it with their skills and exciting play. no matter where they play, i think they have a good chance of winning. this is apparent to me during the semi finals. where they might have beaten the indonesian team but people are still saying it was luck and they would have a hard time winning that match. but they showed their ability and won that match. superbly i might add. and thus i really believe that they would win the finals even though everybody said TG and CW with kick their *toot*. because i know the ranking means nothing. and i know they are hungry for this win. and i know on top of that they have the home crowd on their side. the only thing that surprises me was the straight sets win. i believe they were gonna win it but they would have to struggle against one of the top doubles teams in the world today. granted tony and candra was a little off in the final but i think KKK and TBH rocks! i know they will not win all the tournament, they will surely lose some, but by george, i know they will give all the top teams a run for their money and will i predict, be in the top 8 by the end of this year. maybe even top four. but that would depends on how they calculate the rankings. GOOOOOOOOOOO! KKK AND TBH! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! make us proud. after razif-jailani and cheah soon kit-soo beng kiang, this is the most promising doubles team i have seen. maybe we'll get the thomas cup back. he he he.
I think Soon Kit/Kim Hock was a better pair than Soon Kit/Beng Kiang, not only because of the former's Olympic Silver (well, they were stopped by Rexy and his pal Ricky in a narrow margin ... and now both Rexy and Soon Kit are Kim Hock's subordinates) but also their overall career achievements. Let's hope KKK/TBH could at least repeat CSK/YKH's feat in the Olympics ... with a former silver medalist as their chief coach and a gold medalist as their coach, can't they?
XD: Gao Ling looks set to dominate the XD world with a new partner, Zheng Bo, who proves more steady than the clowning Zhang Jun. Robertson managed to cut down on his errors and impose a commanding influence from the back, making it a good match. In the end, I feel the Chinese were simply that little bit better. Gao Ling was as usual smilingly happy with the win, and I think Zheng Bo is quietly happy to have been paired with Gao Ling and start winning some titles. I believe this pairing is smartly formulated for Beijing 2008. MS: Peter Gade mostly in control. Sharp as ever. No sign of headache. He was the second most ecstatic winner of the day, closely matching KKK/TBH. He even threw his racquet into the crowd. During the match, I think he got a slight majority of support from the crowd. (Of course, the Chinese usually have good support in Malaysia, although that has waned due considerably to Li Yongbo, I think.) I was emotionally supporting Peter as well because of his near-miraculous performance after hospitalisation, and also because I feel bad for Chen Hong (who I think would be a bigger foe for Peter to handle) for allegedly being sidelined for the sake of Chinese strategy once again. WS: Zhu Lin was simply very sharp. But in fact, she was the one who looked out of breath. A lot of early rallies were simply energy-sapping. It was obvious that she was taking a lot of time between rallies while WMC wanted to start the next rally as soon as possible. However, towards the end of the match, WMC failed on capitalise on her better fitness. Instead of extending the rallies, she chose to smash, which were mostly easily saved by ZL without much effort. Also, the numerous easy points rewarded by WMC must have a very positive psychological effect on ZL. ZL, with her height and solid strokes, reminds me a lot of Zhang Ning, even down to the fact that she can still play hell of a game when seemingly exhausted. As for WMC, my impression of her is that she can retrieve just about anything, similar to squash's Nicol David (also about same height and build), who was dubbed the Energizer bunny. But I feel WMC needs to develop weapons to go further. WD: Good fight by the Indonesians. I believe the Chinese will now have to take Greysia/Vita very seriously; they may even be a bigger threat than the Koreans Lee/Lee. The Indons repeatedly attacked the Chinese weak point, Huang Sui, and she was pressured to make a lot of mistakes. However, the quality of Gao/Huang is obvious and even though troubled, still romped home the title. MD: By far the best match of the day, as expected. The match was reminiscent of the SF between the Malaysians and Markis/Hendra. Even the scoreline was the same if I am not mistaken. I thought that Tony/Candra would try to slow down the game, but the match was mostly to see who was faster. And the Malaysians were faster more times than not. Both pairs played very well. The rallies were mostly very exciting and high-tempo. A lot of the game occured at the net. KKK as usual likes to rush things at the net, and TBH proved to be very good at the net also. Tony who is used to controlling the net, marginally lost the net battle. Candra proved to be the weakest among the four, making more unforced errors than usual. KKK made the customary amount of errors due to his habit of rushing the shots (a habit which also wins points). For me, TBH was the revelation. He controlled the game even better than master Tony. His strokes were cool and composed. He knew the best shot before he executed it well. My fellow traveller from Singapore, Nicky (ex-Vietnamese national player who accompanied Loh and me to KL) mentioned that if Tony were to partner TBH, the match would be over very quickly, and I agree. At the end of the second game, after KKK/TBH have opened up a big lead, Tony/Candra staged a comeback, probably due to desperation and also the Malaysians' nervousness. But in the point-a-rally system, once KKK/TBH got one or two more points, it was practically over.
My answer to that is a resounding "NO!". I admit my observation may be limited or even downright wrong, but I feel TBH is the best doubles player in Malaysia right now, although the lack of experience shows up a bit.
I'd love to see them again in a rematch against Tony & Candra.. ..but as Han mentioned in the previous page.. ..frankly, playing in front of the home crowd support, the M'sia Open was, IMO, KKK's/TBH's "best" chance to get a win over the veteran pair..And they certainly took advantage of that opportunity.. **Of course, i'd be glad to be proven wrong if KKK/TBH are able to beat TG/CW *outside* of M'sia..
- Tony/candra were considered unbeatable, thats why MD was talked about a lot - as for PG and ZL not talked about as much even though they've won their gold medal, try to look at where all the ppl are from when they post, you will know why, most(if not all) are malaysian - china's winning is expected, and dislike from other countries are expected as well from the previous statement, everyone want to dominate, but others will always say domination is not healthy (this is the same if you look at it economically, monopoly is never good to the society(with some exceptions), but who doesn't want to be monopoly? ) - an extreme case would be indra, our beloved TH fan, have you see him appears in the forum when TH loses? or how much he posts if TH wins? this explains alot, translating from 1 very-enthusetic person to a group isn't too difficult, eh?
They've beaten other veteran pairs outside of Malaysia before, but TG/CW is of course a much tougher one. Just checked the new world ranking point scheme and realize that after their MO win, KKK/TBH will enjoy a big leap in WR to somewhere between 46th-55th place when the new WR list is announced on coming Thursday. That makes them automatically qualified for the qualifying rounds in the SS events of their choice in the future instead of having to wait for higher-ranked pairs to give up. However, they will need to at least reach two more SS semi-finals to be ranked among Top-28 and automatically qualified for the main draw.
Actually.. ..hehe, i was trying to quote this post, by spchu, but missed it and my editing time ran out.. Or wait, if Tony & Candra qualify for the WC later this yr, hmm, who knows, KKK & TBH might have another chance against them again in M'sia, in front of their homecrowd this yr..
oh, i believe they will. judging from the way they play, i really believe they will. maybe not all, maybe not even half, but i know they will win some. just hope the success dont get to their head and there's no bickering between the two. KKK seems a little critical of TBH. but i think TBH is the better player. but overall, they complement each other.
All I can say is TBH will definetely Rexy favourite son(not KKK), that's why Rexy insisted TBH to sit beside him on the plane during Thomas Cup, and then TBH face will like "Sit with a coach,huh?"Rexy picked TBH instead of the more experienced LWF/Fairuz during Thomas Cup, this shows how much Rexy likes TBH. KKK said "pls let me leave.. im rushing for aeroplane to korea.. i haven even pack my baggage yet.. the aeroplane is not going to wait me.. then pouted again". Oh, KKK will simply so cute and funny. Make his preparation in the last minute. What is he up to?
I think KKK is alright. Both of them nvr stop motivating each other. TBH to my surprise his defense improved alot and even able to change the rhythm of the shots often. But KKK is very dominant at the net and a good lead player. Hard to say who is better.
