Michelle Li (Canada)

Michelle's style will never beat anybody by a big margin? Um, I think she's beat a lot of players by a big margin lately. How about the scores in her latest title at the Belgian International where she routined Karin Schaase inthe final 11-6 11-2 11-6. She has an amazing offense built up by one of the best smashes out there, and she has also got a great variation of deadly drives from the midcourt area. She was lacking in consistency and experience in the highest league but she is quickly gaining that. If she can improve her defense, I think she will threaten the very best players in world on a consistant basis.

It's not surprising she seemed a bit fatigued in the WC considering it was so close after the Commonwealth Games. Still she beat Porntip.

 

I agree with your first sentence, vixter.
In the Commonwealth and World Championship, ML was playing well. But it was if the effort was 'just enough' to squeak by. Although her aggressive game has improved, she often seems to win by the skin of her teeth, and almost relies on a few mistakes by her opponents.

She does seem to be getting physically and technically stronger, however. If she can also continue to modify her on court persona to a more imposing force with a killer instinct, she may be able to hold her own with the mentally and physically strong Top 10.

 

^ Michelle has already improved her mental strength significantly. The next level to reach the killer instinct level would be for her to scream at the top of her lungs like Marin or WSX, which I'm not sure is to be imitated.

 

No no no! Not screeching.
I agree with you that she has improved in mental toughness and she should be applauded for it. But there is still room to go. That tired almost apologetic look she gets on her face after many a rally can only be heartening to her opponents.
Whatever it is she has done since last year is obviously beginning to work for her. Keep up the good work ML! You are one that all we Canucks can support! (even if you are from Toronto )

 

I service judged one of her matches in Canada Open. Shuttle landed out near my seat. As she was walking by to pick up the shuttle, she let out a loud shout next to my ear

 

Michelle will actually be based in Copenhagen from now on and play in the league*

I also think her round-the-head crosscourt/ down the line smash is a great weapon

*Mentioned by Gill Clark during Commonwealth Games

 

Yes, I can confirm that Michelle is currently in Copenhagen for a league.

She's top 15 as of right now, hopefully a jump to top 10 soon enough. How much more funding would she get from Canada if she makes top 10 is what I want to know.

 

Badminton Canada can probably only offer enough to buy a quart of maple syrup and a pound of back-bacon.

 

.....but would be pleased to hear differently from someone 'in-the-know'.

 

Trophy cabinet filling up fast for Michelle with a cluster from Czech and Belgian Opens:

http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=E64D88AB-C48C-416E-9C47-A026A725016F

and

http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/s...A6D147-5959-42F6-B6E1-FCF72647DB1A&d=20140913

smautf

 

She just had a fundraiser dinner today. She's going to be playing in the Pan American Championships during the time of the Denmark Open. It is as much ranking points as GPG.

 

She is so pretty =)

 

Almost correct. The Asian and European continental championships are GPG level ranking points. However, the Pan Am Championships yield only GP-level points, as stated in the prospectus.

 

Oops yes, for some reason, I was thinking GPG gave those amount of ranking points. Anyways, the prospectus needs to be updated. GP is now 5500 points. (Almost typed GPG again lol)

 

She clinches 2 out of 3 to help Team Canada stage a comeback to win 3-2 against the US during Pan Am Team Event.

 

Good article write up on Michelle Li in Toronto Star


Michelle Li thrives as Canada’s ‘face of badminton’
Canadian badminton star Michelle Li finds great fanfare in Markham, one of the sport’s epicenters in the Americas. As she rises through the ranks ahead of next year’s Pan Am Games, her next hope is to deliver the backyard game to a wider national audience

Markham's Michelle Li is one of Canada's most decorated badminton players. No other Canadian singles player, male or female, has ever been ranked in the world's top 15.

Markham's Michelle Li is one of Canada's most decorated badminton players. No other Canadian singles player, male or female, has ever been ranked in the world's top 15.
By: Paul Hunter Feature reporter, Published on Sat Oct 18 2014

In a converted Markham warehouse, the staccato plink-plink-plink from nearby games hanging in the still air, Michelle Li poses with her racquet on one of the green, padded courts.

But the face of Canadian badminton is struggling with her close-up.

Each time the photographer asks her to “look serious,” she breaks into a wide, toothy grin and is ambushed by giggles.

Li doesn’t do serious very well.

“Even when I cry I’m smiling,” says the 22-year-old.

The photo lights eventually put away, Li begins her workout.

Now this, this is serious.

This — Li’s relentless pursuit of excellence combined with her infectious charisma — is why she is revered by many of the 10,000 local players who have turned Markham into the sport’s epicentre in the Americas. This is why badminton administrators hope Li, ranked 15th in the world, can move up even further and deliver the backyard game to a wider national audience.

Coach Jennifer Lee holds about 25 shuttles and lobs them over the net one at a time in rapid succession. Li executes perfect drop shot after perfect drop shot, the birds falling at her coach’s feet. On occasion, she’ll flick one hard along the length of the net so it falls just inbounds on the far side, or lob one deep to the back court.

Lee grabs another arm full of the goose-feathered shuttles and the task is repeated. Then repeated again. And again. In each corner on the coach’s side of the court, the birds accumulate, having landed with pinpoint precision. They then move on to overhead smashes, the birdies barely visible as they launch off Li’s racquet.

This is no church picnic. Four days each week, Li will spend six hours on court at Lee’s Badminton Training Centre working on her shot making. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s two hours of court time augmented by another two hours of footwork, skipping and weight training. Sundays are for rest.

“That’s more hours than other people go to school,” says Li. “It’s such a challenge to be perfect. I feel a lot of Canadians don’t see that. They still think of it as a backyard sport — it’s so easy. But the amount of hard work, the time that I’ve put into badminton, should show that it’s a lot harder than you think.”
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Michelle Li trains up to six hours on her shot making and conditioning at a facility in Markham. “Around Markham, people do recognize her and people do idolize her," says a local official.

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Michelle Li trains up to six hours on her shot making and conditioning at a facility in Markham. “Around Markham, people do recognize her and people do idolize her," says a local official.

It is that single-minded dedication that has Li, a Markham resident, breathing rarefied air in a pursuit typically dominated by Asia and Europe. This year, Li became the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal in singles badminton at the Commonwealth Games and the first to reach the quarter-finals of the All England championships. No other Canadian singles player, male or female, has ever been ranked as high as 15 in the world.

She will soon head overseas to tournaments in Asia, followed by pro games in Denmark in a push to crack the top 10.

But it is how she plays, with grace and elegance, and how she presents herself, as upbeat, smiling and humble, that has the badminton community wondering if she is the one to bring the sport the widespread appeal it craves.

“She is a star,” says Joe Morissette, the executive director of Badminton Canada. “She really now is becoming the face of our sport in Canada.”

At a test event this past week in the so-new-you-can-still-smell-the-floor-varnish Pan Am Games badminton facility on Unionville’s Main Street, schoolchildren shouted her name during matches and clamoured for her autograph afterwards. Throughout the impressive building were several seven-foot billboards of Li — smiling, of course. In the lobby, she also appears in a giant poster modeling Badminton Canada merchandise.

“Around Markham, people do recognize her and people do idolize her,” says Catherine Eng, a founding member of the local Federation of Badminton Clubs.

“It also helps that she’s got a pretty face. No matter what, that helps. It’s good when you have that poster child and it’s nice that she’s also a beautiful person. Sometimes in sports, the athletes have arrogance and ego. Michelle doesn’t carry any of that.”

To understand the importance of Li to the community, an outsider must first grasp the pervasiveness of badminton in Markham. As the Asian population grew in this city north of Toronto — Li’s family arrived from Hong Kong when she was 6 years old — so did the game that many of those immigrants brought with them.

And Lee, considered something of a pioneer, had already found a way to help the sport flourish.

Ideally, badminton is played in a facility with, understandably, high ceilings, no windows and no air currents. It was Lee who hit upon the idea that a warehouse would be a perfect fit.

“But the first day I walk in and say I want to rent a warehouse, nobody was interested in talking to me because they didn’t believe the badminton business could support the rent,” she recalls.

Undaunted, in 1995 Lee found the perfect unit, an old telephone cable manufacturing plant on Centurian Drive. She had the walls painted blue so it was easier to pick up the flight of shuttle, and shaded any glare from the overhead lights for the same reason. She laid down seven courts and hung out her shingle. It worked.

There are now at least a dozen other similar warehouse facilities in Markham, including four close to Lee’s establishment. In total, there are more than 40 badminton clubs in Markham and Richmond Hill — many using school gyms on evenings and weekends — and 60 in York Region. The local badminton federation puts the total number of players at more than 10,000.

“I would say in nine out of 10 Asian households in Markham, somebody plays badminton,” says Eng.

“It’s cultural,” says Lee. “In places like China and Indonesia, it’s hot and there’s no wind. You grab a racquet and you go outside and play. Everybody can improve on the street or in their backyards. It’s easy to touch the sport so when they immigrate to Canada, they want to play the same sport. They just go indoors. It’s just like hockey here. When winter comes, kids grab their hockey sticks and go out on the driveways.”
Michelle Li, who's a favourite for next year's Pan Am Games, executes drop shot after perfect drop shot during a training session. "It’s such a challenge to be perfect," she says. "I feel a lot of Canadians don’t see that. They still think of it as a backyard sport."

Michelle Li, who's a favourite for next year's Pan Am Games, executes drop shot after perfect drop shot during a training session. "It’s such a challenge to be perfect," she says. "I feel a lot of Canadians don’t see that. They still think of it as a backyard sport."

Li started playing the game at 11 when her mother handed her a racquet at a community event. It became a serious pursuit at 17 when Lee took her overseas to “open her eyes” as to how tough international competition really is.

So passionate are the fans in Markham that 600 people paid up to $100 each to crowd into a gym earlier this year to watch an exhibition by retired former world No. 1 Peter Gade of Denmark. Afterwards they lined up for an hour getting autographs on everything from Gade shoes to Gade shirts.

When Eng organized a badminton camp this summer with Alex Bruce — Li’s doubles partner from the London Olympics — as a guest instructor, registration opened at midnight. By 6 a.m. the next morning, 60 children had signed up. After five days, all 100 spots were claimed.

That fervour, combined with the arrival of the Pan Am Games next year — at a new world-class facility featuring a hugely popular local hero — has created a perfect storm for badminton.

“It’s a marketing dream,” says Morissette. “We’ll do our best as an organization to leverage that opportunity not only for the benefit of this community but for the sport across the country.”

It won’t be an easy sell to many Canadians who would only think to pick up a racquet at the beach or cottage, ideally while holding a beverage in their other hand.

One of the few times badminton made inroads into the consciousness of a wider Canadian audience was during what was dubbed Shuttle-gate at the London Olympics. With stronger nations tossed for throwing matches in order to face softer opponents, Li and Bruce made it to the semifinals.

It’s not an accomplishment of which Li is particularly proud, saying she wants to earn whatever she gets, but she did get a sense of what international success can mean.

“It was really nice when I came home and people were so supportive. They’d say how they watched on TV. I’d say, ‘Oh my God. I was on TV? Badminton was on TV?’ That was really nice,” she recalls.

Li has had opportunities to go overseas to play for a badminton powerhouse like Malaysia, where the money can be huge — upwards of $1 million per year including endorsements — but for now her goal is to remain in Canada to help carve a path for future generations of players.

Li has put her kinesiology studies at the University of Toronto and her long-term plans to enter medical school on hold to pursue a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

But staying in Canada leaves her scrambling for sponsorship money. Her swing through Denmark might earn her $20,000 but Lee has calculated that a year on the circuit costs $95,000. Airline tickets alone are $45,000 to $48,000.

Badminton is notoriously underfunded but Li is fortunate that Lee, beyond being a highly regarded coach, also sponsors the player by not charging for her coaching or a place to train, which is worth about $20,000 annually. Lee also covers her own travel costs.

Lee said the hope is that as Li moves up the rankings, she will earn endorsements from international companies. Her protégé is already, she says, “very, very famous in Asia.”

In the interim, there is that goal, Li says, of “changing how the sport of badminton is viewed in Canada” and to inspire younger players to believe that, if she can do it, other players from here can compete at the highest level internationally.

For that, there remains much work to be done, and not just by Li.

“She should be the face of badminton but I’m going to call a spade a spade. The badminton leadership team has not used her enough to promote the sport. It’s all marketing and, in my mind, we haven’t done a good job marketing her,” says Philip Chow, president of the local badminton federation and the sport’s chair for Pan Am 2015.

“We’re using Pan Am as a marketing vehicle to promote her and as we promote her, we’re promoting the sport. If we do that, I think she can take badminton across the country.”

So can Li be that athlete who pushes a fringe sport into the Canadian mainstream?

“I hope so. It’s definitely a dream,” she says. “I think I can raise the game by playing my best. By raising my own game, maybe I can raise a lot of other Canadian athletes’ games and make this team something special. Everybody wants to be part of something special.”