Venue : Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham-ENG Total prize-money : US$500,000 Tournament website : http://www.allenglandbadminton.com/ Tournament time-table : http://www.allenglandbadminton.com/t...schedule-2015/ Birmingham time : http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wt...ma=Find%20Time Order of Play (05.00pm, 3 courts) => https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...9F5D4F-9DEC-4974-A40E-9009DEE332F8&d=20150306 The quarterfinal round will offer plenty of exciting encounters. Yesterday shock defeats saw WS top-seed Li Xuerui succumbed to her fellow countrywoman Sun Yu and defending champion Ahsan/Setiawan was eliminated by the aggressive CHN combo Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan. Also 5th seed Kim Gi Jung/Kim Sa Rang added KOR failure in this category, lost to JPN #3 pair Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda. MS, three title contenders Lin Dan, Chen Long, Jorgensen must pump up their standard of play as tougher opponent started from this stage. The young and dangerous Kento Momota, Viktor Axelsen will perform all out to create breakthrough here also TPE fast improved Chou Tien Chen will deliver strong resistance for current World Champion. One QF clash goes to local favourite Rajiv Ouseph against JPN veteran Sho Sasaki, the Englishman with heavy supported by home fans has slight advantage to book his first ever All England semifinal. WS, CHN supremacy depends on Two Wangs, Yihan and last year winner Shixian. They will get really hard test today as resurgent Saina Nehwal and Tai Tzu Ying are high potential rival to surprise them. Rematch of GER Open last week, Marin v Sung JH may reverse the outcome, revenge on the air for Spaniard sensation. Maybe it's blessing for Thai prodigy Ratchanok Intanon to meet Sun Yu than Li Xuerui, it's interesting to watch how far Sun Yu improvement as she beat Li Xuerui convincingly last night. It's big question whether the top-seed is fully recovered from her injury or not. MD, several huge upsets happen before last eight round as pre tournament front-runners Lee/Yoo and Ahsan/Setiawan unexpectedly have been eliminated. The darkhorses Conrad/Kolding also Fu/Zhang will be on high motivation to challenge seeded pairs at lower half of draw. Stiff duel at the stake between Endo/Hayakawa contra Lee SM/Tsia CH, former champion Boe/Mogensen is fave to cruise to semi. WD, 5 Chinese combos, 1 ticket has been secured. Who will defy all CHN semifinals? Pedersen/Juhl, Maheswari/Polii have opportunity to overcome two new scratch partnerships, Bao YX/Tang YT and Tang JH/Zhong QX. While Kakiiwa/Maeda has slim chance to stop top-seed Tian Q/Zhao YL. XD, Ahmad/Natsir is INA realistic chance to top AE podium once again, they will be challenged by home hero The Adcocks and most likely their nemesis Fischer/Pedersen will wait them in last four. On top-half of draw, Zhang/Zhao still manages smooth run en route to quarter and expected to prevail today oppose Ko SH/Kim HN. Intriguing tie to follow, giant-killer Jordan/Susanto vs Danish combination Kolding/Juhl. LIVE TV (Court 1) matches, 05.00pm local time : 1) Sun Yu (CHN) v Ratchanok Intanon (THA) 2) Kento Momota (JPN) v Lin Dan (CHN) 3) Saina Nehwal (IND) v Wang Yihan (CHN) 4) Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock v Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA) 5) Mads Conrad Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding (DEN) v Markus Gideon Fernaldi/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) Three WS ties should be blockbuster matches today, it's hard to predict. While former World Champion Intanon is favoured to progress.
Matches at other courts worth watching are: Court 2: Lu Kai/Huang YQ vs Joachim/Christinna Sung JH vs Carolina Court 3: Z/Z vs Ko SH/Kim HN
OMG...5 CHN WD pairs still are playing in the Qtr Final. The ROW are 1 INA, 1 Denmark and 1 JPN. It is a stretch but the ROW can win their matches today vs. CHN WD. Each of ROW pairs definitely has beaten CHN WD multiple times (Pedersen/Juhl, Greysia/Maheswari, maybe not for Reika/Maeda).
i really think saina has a chance here, wang yihan looked vulnerable in her first two matches and nehwal is playing really really well. she has got a great opportunity, it would be interesting to see how she does today. and if she can overcome wang. .than i see probably tai tzu ying as the only player who can stop her. .but thay's just what i think, rest we will see what happens.
Actually ZZ against Ko/Kim h2h is 1-2, but do think ZZ have the upper hand. LK/HYQ vs Pedersen/Nielsen will be a good test for the youngsters, them and Liu/Bao will perhaps become China main pairs going into Tokyo quad. WSX against TTY expect WSX to win, WYH vs Saina a bit tougher. Interested to see Sun Yu vs May, whether Sun Yu has improved a lot or whether her victory yesterday was more a factor of LXR injury.
They are starting at 5pm local time. That's 1am in most of east Asia and south east asia. I think they should start at 12noon local time. It's better for people in our time zone, which is where the majority of the badminton fans live.
Z/Z both have to play in two different disciplines. I doubt both of them can do this for the entire Olympic qualification period and maintain World Ranking No. 1. If remaining at ranking 5 to 8, maybe.
WYH has shown wild swings in form, somewhat vulnerable and unpredictable. WSX if she reproduces the same form as she did here last year winning the title, she stands a reasonable chance of retaining her title. Apart from these two, the other odds-on favourites are Intanon, Saina, Sung JH, Tai TY, and Marin,not in any order. Sun Yu,provided she overcomes Intanon today,has an outside chance.
the match schedule also surprise me, if the 1st match start at 5 pm then the latest match each court will be finish around 12 am that's so late for the crowd esp for the players because they have to be ready for SF match (if they win) back to the hotel take a shower etc etc they finally sleep around 2-3 am, thats not very helpful for their body and mind. I dont understand why it has to be start from 5 pm, instead of 12 or 2 or 3 pm.
5 pm??? That means, in India , if i want to, i have to watch the matches from 10.30 pm. Really painful.
Well I would disagree a bit.. WYH isn't really vulnerable. In fact I find her getting back... NO as the very first opponent in the very first major and moreover overcoming from an extra set in the very first match and that too after injury around Dubai SSF is a good work from YH's side.. If not MM I was expecting WYH having even more troubles from the young fit NO after watching the downfall of CHN WS in the last period of previous year... This is again getting CHN's way I think at least in WS LXR is yet to come back but WYH and WSX looking confident to me..saina is still having a chance against her nemeses and end the H2H..we'll see and if any how(I doubt) she reaches SF I don't think CM/WSX has the potential of stopping her as of now only TTY can do that provided she reaches all the way.. Yu sun looking promising but I wonder she will be our classed by fornutate RI
Starting the tournament late and ending late after mid-night local time would more likely affect those players in the far-away timezones, particularly the Asians in the early rounds when they are acclimatizing. While the same can be said when the tournament is held in Asia affecting the Europeans, let's hope the relevant tournament organizer with BWF support make the appropriate adjustments to the tournament schedule so as to minimize as much as possible any negative effects to the players concerned as well as benefit TV and Internet audiences worldwide. It's understandable why the AE organizer wanted to start the QFs at 5 pm local time as they hope to attract more live spectators after office/business hours on a Friday. By the same token, I'd expect the SFs and Finals to start at 12 noon or so. Still, I hope the various organizers would consider making some adjustments to the schedule for the QFs usually held on a Friday, in future. I believe doing so would contribute in a small but significant way to the promotion of badminton as a spectator(online/TV viewers) and recreational sport in the world at large.
I have failed to manage to watch a single match till now and to my surprise as usual SN is the sole countrymate remaining in the prestigious AE..I doubt we can see her playing today(too late here) and I am preety sure IND will not have anyone representing the tricolor on the courts on Saturday
