As a neutral, it was fascinating to see someone challenging the minions. Imo, Zhang Nan outplayed Kevin in net play and counter-attack.
Not to mention they've got two titles already this year. so not bad lah... Disappointed they lost today but lets be clear... they'll bounce back like they always do!
My thinking is Lin Dan want to avoid injury, so he just attends to the tournament as responsibility to the sponsor, and the true comeback will be on May, when Olympic qualification will start
Just disappointed that they had to face each other as early as R1 though.. Would have wanted to see both pairs to play 2 matches more at least.
I wouldn't say he outplayed kevin at the net, but definitely in the counter-attacking play. kevin hasn't been able to create the same opportunity like zhang nan did in the defense. he still has time to learn though, afterall he's only 23.
My goodness, can't believe what I'm seeing, Li Xuerui comes back to take G2 by deuce 22-20 and wins the match when she looks to be down and out and destined for a decider !
I'm shocked, but not so shocking that minions lost. It has been a long time since they lost early. It's okay. Congrats to Liu/Zhang. Hope Liu/Zhang can back to the top 5. Anyway, I really don't expected minions to win hattrick. The good thing is that minions are free from AE curse. Since 2009, no MD pair won both AE and WC at the same year. Hope this will be a sign for minions. It's your turn now to be AE champion, Fajar/Rian. Or daddies.
I think they need to change their style as Gideon gets older, look at effervescent BoeMo and AhsanHendra. I know that means they wont win that many titles but they wont win many if Gideon is too slow anyway. Of course winning 2 titles this year is not bad.