If you are referring to me, no, I was sitting way behind the premium seats on Section 210, row 20, off-centre behind the second court to the left.
Hey guys, please don't be too hasty! First you need to polish up your badminton. Do you think Lady Ma will take you if you can't even squeeze 5 points from her? Even if you did, how long can you last? Can you remember how many 'big' brother XD partners that she has sacked? Do you want to be the third or... to be 'divorced"? She has no mercy even for the ladies. Just remember the number of push-ups that she made Kim Ha Nah do for missing a shot in R1 although CHN lost the match ultimately. So you still want to date her?
Rather alluring and confidence boosting I must say. Feels nice to have such a BIG gun! But even some pros use a smaller, shorter and lighter one, more appropriate for the work on hand?
Singapore's Mt Fuji rises above the waters Did it ever strike you that our SIS is shaped like Japan's world-renowned Mount Fuji? Except of course ours is man-made and built at sea-level, almost sitting on water whenviewed from afar. When you think about it, the similarity is not all too difficult to understand. SIS's famous architect Kenzo Tange is Japanese and all Japanese love the sacred Mt Fuji. I'm sure Mt Fuji must have erupted during its long years of existence and when this happens, the people living around it must have been adversely affected. Well our SIS is no different when nature took its course, but unlike the fierce volcanoes, we can prevent leaks from the rain. When it rained heavily, as it must have been during R2 (I was not aware as I was inside the stadium enjoying the proceedings, but the stadium did get colder), there was a small leak on the roof and the match on Court 3 between Tanongsak and Wong Ki Wing had to be stopped and was later continued on Court 4, which Tanongsak or Boon, as he is better-known by friends, won in 3 games. Unfortunately he was no match for LCW in yesterday's QF. Fortunately the rain must have stopped a while later to allow Court 3 to be used again. But the management must seriously follow up to ensure that future repairs to the roof must be well done so as not to disrupt the action on courts again as this had happened before.
It isn't the first time that the roof of the Indoor Stadium has leaked. It happened at last year's Singapore Open too. And that was from another part of the roof. Worse, it seems the leaks are hardly rare. It has happened at several non-sporting events too. It's either poor structural design or poor maintenance, neither of which is encouraging
Yup, both Putra Stadium and Singapore Indoor Stadium leak bigtime, year after year. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day - Thinking of stopping by.
Taiwanese badminton duo shines in Singapore Open [h=1]2014/04/13 21:16:29[/h][h=2]Focus Taiwan http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aspt/201404130023.aspx By Lee Chin-wei and Elizabeth Hsu[/h] Taipei, April 13 (CNA) Lee Sheng-mu and Tsai Chia-hsin from Taiwan fell to Chinese rivals in the men's doubles final of the 2014 OUE Singapore Open on Sunday after an impressive run in the US$300,000 event. Seeded sixth in the 32-team draw, Lee and Tsai lost to the unseeded Chinese team of Cai Yun and Lu Kai in straight sets, 21-19, 21-14, in 42 minutes. The match was tighter than the score would indicate. The first set was tied at 19-19 before the Taiwanese pair lost the final two points, and they took an 8-3 lead in the second set, only to see the Chinese team rally past them. Lee and Tsai were the only Taiwanese players to finish in the top three of any of the events at the tournament, touted as Singapore's most prestigious badminton tournament. The Taiwanese duo reached the final after defeating the fourth-seeded Malaysian team of Tan Wee Kiong and Hoon Thien How 21-16, 21-14 in the quarterfinals and the unseeded South Korean team of Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Choel 22-20, 18-21, 21-14 in the semifinals. The tournament saw a major upset when unseeded Indonesian Simon Santoso, who had to qualify for the main draw and is ranked only 52nd in the world, shocked top-seeded Lee Chong-wei of Malaysia 21-15, 21-10 in the men's singles final. Lee, who was playing in the event for the first time in four years, praised Santoso as being the more confident player on the day.
Yup indeed, Simon Santoso played THE MATCH of his life yesterday. Just hours before that, Hauge and I were in deep discussion of what mental state would he apply to the match .... guess we got our answers and it was refreshing to see Simon back in saddle after 5 years of wilderness. Since our resident photographer Mr Loh suddenly was, err, indisposed for the day, here are some pics of the finals .... starting of course, with the venue. First, let us start with some, ahem, amateur pics of the soon to be completed Singapore Sports Hub. Although Li Ning was no longer a major sponsor of Singapore Open, the situation at the booths tell a different story ...... Li Ning booth ..... with swarms of potential customers OUE ... the new sponsors. Err, what are they selling again? Nice handcrafted items ..... bought a few for kids And of course, the all-important Kallang Mills. Yup, there were two of them.
THE CONVERSATION, and The XD Final Just as I was entering the arena, our BC-world reknowned and PBSI-affiliated Hauge and his recognizable spectacles walked by ..... We ended up spending a good 45 minutes executing THE CONVERSATION. After some time, Jennifer (aka Jen from the Thomas Cup 2008/World Championships 2009 BC squad) came by to join us. Yeah, pretty much everything was discussed, such as .... 1. the situation of Simon Santoso's mind (whose performance later in the day caused failure of the last item). Great Job, Simon!!! 2. the story of Singapore Open walkovers (specific to a certain team, of course) 3. why Indonesia won't do Singapore Open walkovers if two Indonesian teams/players meet each other 4. the story of how INA players are motivated to perform well (aka performance based $$$) 5. the story of the 2014 Thomas/Uber Cup preparations 6. improving the standards of officiating during Asian Games (aka no controversial line calls) 7. pushing BWF to seriously enforce a decent minimum standard for tournament organizers, especially with respect to facilities for players. 8. the new tournament branding for Indonesia Premier Super Series 9. the story of the Asian Championships - relegated by top players for many years 10. planning BC get together after the finals Of course, that last item did not happen because it seemed that Simon Santoso's mind was extremely focused (not to mention that he was always first to the net in the final match). So I am sure Hauge had to focus his energies on congratulating Simon and making sure this grand performance stays consistent throughout future tournaments. Ahh, the good old days when Hauge, Fastdrop and I once counselled the young man ..... Anyway, here are the XD pictures. You will notice during the first game, the pictures were taken at an angle due to THE CONVERSATION. Luckily, I had the 14X zoom with me. The young pretenders to the throne ..... As the first game got further out of their grasp, the horny guy made a premature move ..... Boy : Hey, maybe we should get together sometime .... Girl : Oh, shut up! Game two was a lot closer ..... .... and poor Towi had to lunge to save the shuttle ..... .... while the INA young pair celebrated another point. Towi : Why can't they just do the China syndrome (referring to item 2 of THE CONVERSATION Lily : Sish, if we ask them to do it, the BC resident spy will report over BC news - he has a dedicated secure channel to Hauge. But in the end, the World and All England Champs were much too good .... .... and therefore got to show their feelings on the mike. Podium Pictures of XD Winners!
