@madbad Major, grand slam, they're interchangeable terms. What you're talking about is a career slam in which you have won all 4 majors/grand slams during your career or a calendar slam in which you win all four majors/grand slams in one year. To comment on grunting, it's an interesting topic that's more prominent in Tennis than it is in Badminton, though men's doubles is usually where you see it. I can't think of a singles player who grunts on a smash. It's interesting that sometimes it's used as deception when going for a drop instead of a smash which could possibly count as a hindrance depending on how you look at it. Definitely more high profile instances in Tennis though. In fact, grunting gives each person a unique identity, good or bad, which eventually could leave to more publicity. Distinct personalities and independence of the Tennis players (including personality,financially, and affiliation wise ) is one of the key differences which many in this thread have mentioned could help Badminton as a sport.
CONGRATS TO LINA FOR WINNING THE FRENCH OPEN! Yes she wore a red cap with matching red short skirt and white T-shirt, like the one shown above. It must be a very proud moment for her and perhaps all her Chinese fans and compatriots when the Chinese flag was shown on TV and the familiar Chinese National Anthem was played perhaps for the first time in a grand tennis tournament such as the French Open.
na liiiiiiiii..........................................woooooooooooohhhoooooooooooooooooooooo imagine if china can dominate tennis as they did in badminton
Weather sucked: too hot, too windy (and little sleep) so actually watched the thing . Probably had the volume down low as Schiavone's grunting didn't annoy me nearly as much as usually . Nice match, good play but not epic. Might have become had it gone into a third set, was actually rooting for Schiavone somewhat to win the second as she started to play better and grunt louder (probably vice versa ). In all a deserved winner in the first RG women's final match I've watched in years . Next! .... Apparently 14 million people play tennis in China now which already makes for a huge pool but as Tactim said room for plenty more to make it a simple numbers game. And as far as national team systems go, the communists ... oh sorry "socialists" in France have as close as it get's in tennis to how things are in badminton. Well for many of their sports actually ... That's why they all run around in Adidas kit, wielding Babolat rackets (France badminton)
"French Open Fashions" Vote here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1105/french-open-fashions/index.html
Some female fan in French Open held a sign, that says,'Schiavone A-Hiiii'. A reference to the annoying grunts of Schiavone.
Awesome Li Na..! heard that this final match is broadcasted by the TV in CHN, i guess it will motivate the young chinese girls to achieve like Li Na. In 10 years to come, will CHN ladies dominate the tennis just like in badminton...?
What are your immediate impressions of Li Na’s 6-4, 7-6(0) victory over Francesca Schiavone for the French Open title? The women’s tour was in total disarray two weeks ago. I’m not sure this fills the vacuum, but you could have done a lot worse than the defending champion and the first Chinese Grand Slam finalist playing for the trophy — and having the first Chinese winner. It was a reasonably competitive match. There are still a lot of questions swirling around the women’s game, but this was a nice uptick. I was talking to Yao Ming a few months ago. Given how big sports are in Asia, he was surprised there haven’t been more sort of breakthrough figures. Li Na certainly fits that profile, so it will really be interesting to see how this plays out over there. There’s been a lot of talk about Li’s victory prompting a tennis “boom” in China, but that’s awfully vague. What specific impact will you be looking for? People always say that, but you’re never quite sure what the metrics are. Still, this isn’t Serbia we’re talking about. This is a much different model. If more people are going to watch than watched the Super Bowl, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility, that’s something you can monetize. If a sponsor is going to come up and put an event in China centered around Li Na, that’s something tangible. And I also think it’s significant that she’s so colorful. She’s got a tattoo and her personality is quirky. She didn’t have the killer quotes that she had in Australia where she talked about her husband snoring, but she’s someone that people can identify with easily. People have a sense of who she is, which I think is important too. I think that’s a large part of what made Yao Ming this crossover figure as well, that he wasn’t this mysterious guy who didn’t speak English. People got him
I was expecting something like the cries of birth pangs but was shocked to hear an incessant grunting of "phuck, phuck, phuck" on every serve from her during the early sets. It sounded so vulgar although her cries during the later sets became weaker and different.
Li Na used to be a badminton player when young, then switched to tennis.. There is a difference, at least for now... Guess what, Li Na started his sports life as a badminton player, but switched to tennis later.
Dang, you're right! That's probably more than all of the winners combined of all the SS events in badminton for a whole year!
maybe we should all switch , the prize money is ridiculous compared to badminton , if you made it in to second round of the French Open you already banked $25000 + . Thats more than winning MD in a superseries tournament (both players combined) .
Let's see what happens if we see it happen on a more regular basis. Now that would be very interesting. On the other hand, Li Na's sponsorship should rocket to the sky considering the marketing potential to the chinese population.
Li Na's win is great for tennis and Chinese tennis in particular. But if you are the parent of an 8 years old in China playing badminton now, would you say "Kid, maybe you should try tennis?" I would if I were in their shoes.
Back to the difficult question of how to market and popularise badminton in Europe and America particularly by the BWF and NSAs before badminton talents turn to tennis instead. Well S'pore is trying to revive the game of tennis recently by giving scholarships to talented teenagers to train overseas. But making tennis available in all schools like they did for badminton by building multipurpose halls, it willl be more difficult as tennis courts require much more space on rather limited land in most schools. Tennis is not even included in our only Sports School here, whereas badminton has been a core sport right from the beginning. Certainly badminton is much more popular among adults, youths and children here.
How to market and popularise badminton in Europe and America . That what I have been saying all the while; Until Badminton can find the 2 extra bodies that can be formed to protect players wishing to play professionally (independent from their National Associations), then we shall see commercial enterprises/companies investing in Badminton.
