Congratulations to Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir as they make it 2 back-to-back titles in Europe. No time to rest yet as they will continue their journey to Australia in early April, followed by most probably the Badminton Asia Championships in China, and the India SS. They need to defend their title in India SS!
En route to take back to back title, I think Towi/Lily are bit lucky with no really spectacle from 2 Chn pair and Nielsen/Pedersen Although they almost lost twice to Chan/Goh...........
Pitiful she has established herself as the weakest one among the Wangs, ...her chances of wining the olympics has probably gone down to nil..Should she face Wang Xin or Wang Yihan in the semis, she will be subjected to do a walkover to give China a better chance of winning. She has a lot of work to do to improve her game..
They WILL NOT overtake Xu/Ma for the time being. Moreover, Xu/Ma only have 7176 pts to defend (from the Sudirman Cup) between now to the Olympics seeding, which makes live easier for them to remain as WR 2. For Towi/Butet, even though they win today (which will make up for the MAS GPG pts), they still need to defend 27,350 pts. If they stay to form, a title looks likely in Australia too as they are the top-seed.
kwun, your insinuation at conspiracy theories after Saina's win is very telling, trust you to even hint of that... hmmm, very interesting, highly speculative,subtly revealing... I'm quite reluctant to stir a hornet's nest by venturing to paint a couple of scenarios , one of which might be along this line: First, WYH and JYJ withdrawn, then Liu Xin simply failed to stop or trouble Saina who today overcome WSX, and by her victory Saina would probably regain her no.4 ranking from LXR who in turn is out of OG running, that means the three Wangs... well,I shan't say more. Even so, this situation may be temporary, what if LXR wins the India SS, the Asia championship,etc... whatever, a number of things may happen, not always according to plan (the best of plan may go awry), expect the unexpected, by a twist of fate an unforeseen occurrence may alter the whole scenario to everyone's surprise... Enough said, you set my imagination and speculative thinking on fire,otherwise I wouldn't have thought of it.
if not mistaken, according to the Bola newspaper, they won't likely play in australia grand prix gold
I cant imagine a Chinese line-up without WSX or WYH and it feels weird to have LXR included...Well at least the three Wangs dont have to face Saina until the semis which gets really interesting from here. Whoever gets Baun or Schenk in their draws will sigh....
Saina played very well in this tournament. Congrats to her for the win. Still haven't figured out why LXR has gone MIA . MS match shows there can still be excitement in the post LD/LCW era.
