When I saw Lee Chong Wei lose to Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin loose to Lee Hyun IL, I couldnt help thinking.. They may have made a stupid misstake by switching to a new racket to this event.. Both switched to NS9K and I think both where favourites (in my book ) in these two matchups. If this was the first tournament they used the new racket, I think they made a bad decsision to switch racket for such an important tournament (we all know new rackets needs time to adjust to...even for top pros).. But I may be wrong.. Maybe they have played some of the erailer tournaments before WC with the NS9k?? Anyone knows if they made the switch just before WC? /Twobeer
erm, personally: not true. both players probably got a ns9k at the all england or something and have taken their fair share of court-time with it before entering a tournament.. with 30hours of court time each week players are boudn to adjust much faster than us mortals... and LCW played his ns9k in the last 2 tournaments (after Macau I thought) and just gueswork: if they felt that was the problem they would've switched back... if you want to blame something: blame the linesmen
Really dont want to blame anyone or anything (If I would blame anything it would be the 21x3 scoring.. which slightly increases the element of luck / linesmen ).. Just thought it was a silly idea to switch to a new racket at this years most prestigeous event, thats all But as you mentioned at least LCW switched in good time before the event
nah, only joking. can't blame anything... BTW, Bao switched rackets as well (ns8k->at700)..watching lcw-bcl right now as for switching for a tournament: it's indeed tricky..but from their point of vieuw it'll ne more like: "well, I have an 8k and my new goodie..I like the new one better (*assumption on my part*)" and if you like your new goodie and keep playing the old you're not feeling happy...
true, but I assume Yonex is also is putting some preasure or "carrots" to get top players to promote the latest model... /T
I heard recently the top twenty can win a top five player ,due to the new point system because if you are not in a good shape or you don't pay attention to the first set ,you can loose the match!the come back is really hard! MING
then gao ling like carrots. since tracking her from mp99, she went to ns7000 and now ns9000. what i don't understand is why some players make a major switch eg. xxf from at700 to ns8k and ns9k zhang ning from at700 to ns9k cai from ti10 to ns9k
chinese national players, as far as i know, are never encouraged by Yonex to use any particular models for a marketing reason. they are of cuz introduced with the latest models, but free to use rackets of their own choice within Yonex. this is also true to tennis. the Wilson Federer uses is so much more affordable than many many Wilsons. So are many other pros rackets. It makes no sense if a pro loses a multi-million-dollar tennis tournament with a new racket with which he doesn't hit confidently. how much can the sponsor pay for his/her using the latest model? as much as the tournament prize? same in badminton, though prizes are smaller. but pros won't trade anything for victory.
interesting An Interesting note on this discussion thread.. Is that Lee Chong Wei seem to now have switched back!!! to NS8000 (and doing well so far ) in Japan Open... So maybe LCW agrees with me that he made a bad choice to switch to the NS9000 just before WC /Twobeer
I noticed, weird... you don't see too many switchbacks like that.. Though, iirc yonex pays players playign with their newest model something extra (or gives some more of something), maybe lcw played with the ns9 for that reason... weird...