JOJ is clearly not in the same league as the Trio of Lin Dan - Chen Long - Lee CW. The same goes for the rest such as Chou TC, K Srikanth, K Tago, K Momota, Son Wan Ho, Simon Santoso, Tian Houwei, and what have you - all of them merely taking turns to briefly shine a bit or just be a flash in the pan. They are like playing musical chairs with none of them emerging as The Chosen One to join the company of the Super Trio. Factually, JOJ only beat a rusty LD recently, CTC actually lost twice to the injured LD, similarly for K Srikanth, whilst the rest have yet to register a single win over him. I'd go so far as to say, even if any of them including Chen Long, were to beat Lin Dan here, it's nothing to shout about as Lin Dan is far from peak condition; I'd take something away from their victory. In fact, interestingly, both Taufik Hidayat and Peter Gade at the AE press conference are reported to have more or less said just as much, with Chen Long being mentioned in passing by TH as the only one so far who could break the dominance of LD-LCW.
Super Dan questions 'strange' draw Chinese top badminton star Lin Dan felt it hard to understand the All England Open draw that put all five Chinese players in the same half. Lin, bidding for his sixth All England title, fought off stiff challenge from Japan's Kento Momota with a 21-18, 21-19 win, setting up a semifinal clash with top seed and teammate Chen Long, who eased past sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-11 on Friday. "All the five Chinese players in men's singles were put in the same half of the draw," Lin, dubbed Super Dan, said after the match. "It was a random draw but I thought the 'randomness' was unbelievable." "So I feel it very strange that we all in the same half," added the 31-year-old two-time Olympic and five-time world champion. Fifth seed Lin and Chen are the only Chinese players left in the men's singles draw while Tian Houwei lost to Lin in the second round and Xue Song lost to Chen in the opening match. Wang Zhengming fell to Japanese Takuma Ueda in the first round. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-03/07/c_134045954.htm
In china open, except lindan , all the chinese players including the qualifiers were in the top half where srikanth was placed. So, nothing seems impossible for the draws..
Badminton Central user Sundis also questions 'strange' draw Breaking news: I also question this strange draw in MS. In the top half of the draw there is 1 european player and in the bottom half there are 6 european players. Also all chinese MS players are in the top half plus a lot of other dangerous players (KM, KS and CTC for instance). This makes the draw favourable to european players. After last year when no non-asian player made the SFs of the AE maybe this year they rigged the draw to make it more probable for european players to go far.
I'm beginning to smell jealousy and sour grapes seeping in again. Do bear in mind that IOC/BWF have already imposed the maximum quota of two players/pairs per nation/NOC for each discipline. This rule effectively minimizes if not eliminates much of any possible strategic manipulation to gain optimal advantage for their quest of Olympic Gold-Silver-Bronze medals. In reality this new rule unfairly punishes or specifically victimizes Team CHN more than any others (I need not elaborate, we've covered this topic before elsewhere). If CBA and LYB is so stupid as not to let their two best prospects in each discipline go to the Olympics but choose to artificially engineer their third-best go instead for whatever reasons, they will end up shooting their own foot as it can only be counter-productive and self-defeating to their Olympic goals. I believe CBA and LYB would do well to let nature take its own course. In the past where team CHN could have three spots in every discipline if they are ranked in the top 4 by the end of the OG qualification period drove them, or any nation for that matter, to try their level best to fulfill the quota - that was the crux of the matter that gave rise to all those charges levelled at them for undue manipulation and gamesmanship, rightly or wrongly. Now that the new ruling is implemented, it is most sensible and wise to simply send the two best performing players/pairs to the Olympics. Incidentally, there was an article recently in the Chinese news media where the Chinese government openly criticized their sport bodies for over-emphasizing the importance of sport glory and in some cases resorting to extreme measures to attain the coveted results sometimes at the expense of athletes wellbeing and good sportsmanship as well as possibly do harm to the image of sport as a healthy activity for the general public not to mention the unintended adverse effect it may inadvertently have on the nation's image in the sporting world. That's a positive, encouraging sign , isn't it.
Thanks for posting the article, I can't help but agree with Lin Dan. The draw is so skewed that there's none so blind as those who will not see.
I fully second that. That's an excellent argument for putting the Lin Dan - Chen Long semifinal matchup on TV court, besides its own merits as The Clash of The Titans.
Personally, I'd prefer to watch the FHF/ZN vs Mads/Mads MD face-off than the Bo/Moe one, not because I've anything against them but simply that I've not seen enough of FHF/ZN and the Mads pair.
No matter how are the matches being drawn it just doesn't help the Korean players to advance. 7 players are already knocked out in the first round of the tournament. Then another 5 players are bundled out in the second round. Another 2 players lost in the quarterfinals. No offense here. I have to admit that the Korean players are really performing below under par so I certainly have nothing to complain about the draws or anything here. As I have observed Korean players even lose to lowly or unranked players. To sum it up Koreans lose to players from England, Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain which itself is shocking. Then they also lose to China as well. All I can say is Korean players are not performing well in tournaments and it is high time for badminton revival in Korea. Anybody have any other things to add on? Any other opinion here. Thanks. I am open to any opinion and suggestions. Do feel a bit sad when Korea lose. :crying:
I empathize with you, this is the first time I come across a situation where not a single KOR representative survived beyond the quarterfinals. Hard to imagine but like I said, hoped it's not a trend. (Advisable that you use more paragraphing for easier reading).
I really, honestly don't care about Chinese players all being in one half of the draw. I just care that Chen Long and Lin Dan are kept in the same halves. To top it, the idiots over at All England, chose that their match is not important to deserve a TV court. Disgraceful!
To me, a Lin Dan fan, it is a very very desirable match. Obviously I'm the one not looking at the flag in the jersey. But to my dismay, the organizers most of all, do look at flags. Their attitude rather dissuades me as a fan, and penalizes me for exactly the same attitude that they would desire to see.
1. However I think that this will be a trend. Actually Korea has been over relying on old and veteran players all this while which is rather sad. 2. Their young players seem not to be able to perform well and win in tournaments. 3. Inconsistency among the players is the key reason. 4. Last time we Koreans like to shout about Lee Yong Dae / Yoo Yeon Seong success. Now they are getting older and it is difficult to win when you are getting old. As a result they lost to Danish players. 5. It is only the beginning of the season and the players cannot win in tournaments. 6. Poor performance is highlighted in German Open whereby Lee So Hee / Shin Seung Chan lose to Vivian Hoo Kah Mun / Woon Khe Wei with a one sided score . (16-21, 7-21). Koreans are ranked highly no 10 but the Malaysians are unranked players. 7. On Wednesday Kim Ki Jung / Shin Seung Chan lose again to Tan Aik Quan / Lai Pei Jing raking no 103 in the world (19-21, 21-19, 19-21). 8. This is only the beginning and we Koreans are afraid that this trend will continue till end of this year, Now even Lee Yong Dae / Yoo Yeon Seong will lose in the first round of the match. They are the most promising players in Korea. So who else can we depend on to win? 9. To sum it up Korea is already a goner and gone case in badminton. Anybody agree with me or you all have anything to add on? I am open to opinion. Do feel sad when Korea lose. :crying:
