MS: Lin d Jonassen 15-8 16-17 15-10 Xia d Hidayat 15-9 17-15 WS: Martin d Pi 11-3 11-7 Xie d Wang 11-3 11-0 MX: Eriksen/Schjoldager d Chen/Zhao 11-8 11-4 Zhang/Gao d Kim/Ra 11-7 9-11 11-7 WD: Gao/Huang d Yim/Lee 11-5 11-0 Wei/Zhao d Ra/Lee 11-8 8-11 11-9 MD: Cheng/Chen d Paaske/Rasmussen 15-9 5-15 17-16 Limpele/Hian d Lamp/Boe 15-7 15-11
wow... the Chinese have assured themselves 2 titles (MS and WD). also in contention for other 3 titles. Kim-Ra's winning streak finally came to an end. Interesting to note also that Chen Qiqiu-Cheng Rui made it to final.
Zhang/Gao get back some respectability after their Sudirman cup defeat. Now Kim/Ra have only lost abut 4 times in four years. Does anybody know what matches theywere defeated in? How many times have we seen JR play to setting? There must be many!!
Wow! China still has medal contentions in all 5 events at finals stage! MS: All-Chinese affair. Good job to both Lin and Xia making Chinese MS proud after recent down times. Xia looks to be in-form now defeating Taufik in 2 straght! And Lin must really be fit as he has played a full 3 games in every round of this tourney and still won. At this point I don't care who wins, a Chinese is still a Chinese! WS: Martin vs Xie. I'm sure the other top 3 CHN ladies are a little disappointed but Xie has beaten Martin before. She completely eradicated Wang Chen so hopefully she can pull it through. MD: Chen/Cheng defeated our JR/Paaske in hard-fought 3 sets to set up final against Limpele/Hian. Hopefully they can avenge their Swiss Open Finals loss to the Indo English. MD is definitely looking bright for China in future. WD: All-Chinese affair. Gao/Huang vs. Wei/Zhao. Wei/Zhao beat the odds by defeating Ra/Lee! But Gao/Huang should take it in finals. Good job ladies! XD: Once again, Chen/Zhao can't beat Eriksen/Schjoldager at a critical stage. Well at least they still have their respective doubles events to play in finals. Now, the major upset: Zhang/Gao defeats Kim/Ra in 3 sets!!!!!!!! Way to go guys. Show em the stuff after SC humiliating defeat. I guess Zhang/Gao are still in their top form but we will see after WC. Conclusion: As this is the last tourney WC Chinese squad is playing before WC, China must definitely have some hard confusing times analyzing this. Chinese MS is looking great but with 2 unexpected finalists. We'd thinker Bao CL vs Chen Hong was more likely? In WS, the Chinese ladies are no longer dominating the scene like nothing. We saw a prelude of that at SC and now perhaps this is the actual sign? MD is looking better every time. Fu/Cai still a young pair but prospective in future. Chen/Cheng can do well if they focus: they've made 2 finals this year now! In WD, China's still top. And their "2nd" string team beat top Koreans. WD is looking stronger than WS at this point. And of course in XD, China knows they have a top pair in Zhang/Gao but sometimes they don't fully realize their potential. So, China has clinched 2 already and can win other 3 possibly. Plus, they get 2 silvers also! Ah, good times and bad times for Chinese squad.
Aside from this J-Open loss to Zhang/Gao, I can only think of 2 more losses, both still at the hands of Zhang/Gao. Those are the 2000 Sydney Olympics at QF stage and 2001 World Championships finals. In the latter, I remember watching on TV Kim/Ra losing 17-16 in 3rd set. So, what other events have they lost?
does anybody find it strange that, the Japan Open 2003, in which many have seen as a prequel to the World Championship, we are now at the final stage, and all we see are Chinese, Danes, and a pair of English (ex-INA) players? what happened to the traditional powerhouses like Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia?
In 1999's AE, they lost to Simon Archer and Joanne Goode in the Quarter Finals. in 1999's Japan Open, they lost to Liu Yong and Ge Fei in the semi Finals. In 1999's Sudirman Cup, they also lost to Ge Fei and Liu Yong.
Ah, times before I developed interest in badminton! Kwun, regarding you post and question, what happened to the traditional powerhouses like Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia? Did you miss out the word "other" after the words "the" and "traditional"?? Cuz China and Denmark are definitely traditional powerhouses in their own right. And really the answer to that question is simple: the Chinese were in their way, literally! Ie. Both top Indonesian MS players were beaten by Chinese, 4 Malaysian MS were beaten out by Chinese, Top 2 Korean WD and top XD were also beaten by Chinese! So, these countries basically met the Great Wall of China!!
