Quite possible INA can win it with a marginal score. But for them to win it without pure luck on their side and their opposition to play below par, that's big dream you are talking about.
Basically correct. Bae turned 27 just a few months after the Uber Cup win. More importantly, she had a serious slump. Apart from her Chinese Taipei Open final in August of that year, she collected only 3 first-round wins for the rest of what would be her last year playing internationally (or so it now seems). She was taken off the national team when she got injured after playing singles and doubles throughout a domestic team event in April, 2011. She was already world #33 at the time, and after missing the Australian, Indian, BAC and Sudirman, she likely wouldn't have made the Worlds so things were not looking good for the Olympics, say.
I think Hwang Hye Youn is a pretty safe bet, actually. The perennial third singles players like Jang Soo Young, Kim Moon Hi, and Lee Hyun Jin are off the national team now. Hwang is the 4th highest ranked Korean (including Kim, who hasn't played since her triple-1st-round-exit string in Aug-Sep last year). Of the other singles players on the national team, only two are over 18, and they went overseas once each since making the team, with dismal results. There are six juniors on the national team, too, but they all play doubles. Another thing to consider is that both members of Korea's #3 WD pair, Jang Ye Na and Eom Hye Won, are very competent singles players, as is Choi Hye In. Even Jung Kyung Eun beat Wang Shixian in juniors, once, but don't hold your breath for that kind of line-up.
Hmmm... interesting. Either HHY or JKE playing WS3 would be fine by me . But no, I'm not holding my breath for the latter playing WS. She is now well established in WD with Kim Ha Na. I suppose after her strong showing in the Korean Open, HHY must have the inside track for the WS3 slot. How close to retirement is she? She is hardly featured in international tournaments these days.
Interesting question. Either way, at Uber Cup time, the Korean coaches will be glad they've kept her with the team now that their Bae/Bae/Sung triumvirate has lost a member. Hwang mentioned her future outlook here but gave no timeline. It may be that the Uber Cup defense is a major mission for her, though beating one of the Wangs is very different from beating Chen Xiaojia, Liu Xin, or PV Sindhu. There aren't any top singles players coming up. It's now becoming clear that a Korean player being good at singles is not enough to put them in that category. They must also be bad at doubles. (2002 World Junior Champion Park Sung Hwan being the only recent exception). As juniors, Bae, Sung, Hwang, Shon, Park Sung Min, Hong Ji Hoon and Lee Dong Keun were all good at singles, but so were Kang Ji Wook, Shin Baek Cheol, Choi Hye In, Eom Hye Won, Jang Ye Na, and Jung Kyung Eun. The major difference seems to be that none in the first group were very good at doubles. Ever since Sung Ji Hyun, all the juniors who've been good at singles were also good doubles players.
agreed, although they lost to JPN team recently because MAS fielded the players without LCW and Koo/Tan...
Expected China and China and no one else. LYB will get fired this time if he doesn't win it at home ground.
This year TC & UC will be most likely to go to China, especially this event is held on its home soil, Wuhan. There are of course several "Black Horse Teams", however in my opinion the "Horses" are not black enough to become the real "Black Horse" to do an upset.
With China's both Uber and Thomas Cup teams current form.......I think China will wins both cups this time !!
There is a thing called home court advantage but even without it CHN still remains the favorite to win both events - TC/UC. Let your imagination run wild, imagine what LYB will do to make this the CHN show!
Indonesia might have 0.01% chance of winning thomas cup Indonesia have a quite stable MS and MD's within top 20 i supposed However for Uber cup, It's a gone case. (i would say the chances is as close as 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001%) terribly Weak WS and ok WD's
Uber Cup - JAPAN !! LYB will give the Wangs and doubles gods a big tongue lashing before the Olympics. Thomas Cup - better be China or else...
if China win Thomas cup again this year, I guarantee it will be the boriest Thomas Cup event in history... just like ping pong...
Well to be fair, Indonesia won the most number of titles back in the early days but nobody called it the most boring event. China still has plenty of work to do to tally their record with INA's
yup, indonesia still hold the record for thomas cup. china still need at least 5 titles to match indonesia, am i right?
There's a chance Denmark can win the Thomas Cup this time...i sense their Line-Up is very strong indeed Peter Gade Boe/Mogensen Jorgensen Rasmussen/Conrads Vittinghus The first three matches are very crucial for China, if they lost anyone of them then they are in deep trouble..chances of them losing are greater by ten fold. CHN's second MD pairs are not good enough and Vittinghus is a really good player.
I cant see DEN winning. Gade is not likely to beat MAS, KOR or CHN 1st single, the 1st MD pair are inconsistent and the remainder ae 50/50 at best. This TC is more favoured to china than many previous ones. KOR or weak in MS unlike before and the 2nd MD is not too strong. MAS has good 1st MS but nothing much else. INA has average throughout
One can't to think that it's quite impossible china dun win the Thomas n uber cup unless they withdrawn from competition.