Maybe. Or maybe TG wouldnt have won anything worth mentioning again, similar to Taufik who was also hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread at one point....we'll never know for sure, but in this reality, Fu's achievements eclipse TG's by far.
The Partnership of Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan also known as 'Funan express' is over. We will not see this fantastic pair again.
I agree that Fu has won more. But tellingly Tony took a break and won the World Championships after that break in a different country, different system, different partner. Rather different to Taufik.
Well....yeah. I cant claim to have extensive knowledge on either career, so from my perspective, both look similar in how they havent won any significant titles at the tail end of their careers and are both hyped as 'the best ever' when there's players they even competed against in their lifetime winning far more... Tbh, I think TG's Olympic Gold was harder to achieve, the final was far more competitive and I think Shon Seung Mo was kind of the dream opponent for Taufik (passive style, not very aggressive around the net, not quite the insane retrieving of a 2006-2008 LCW....). Btw, what a ridiculously difficult draw for Chen Hong....wow. Anyhow, I think GOAT discussions are notoriously subjective, even more so in doubles because doubles is, well, a team discipline. But the fact that some players capture great success with different partners kind of underlines that they have great team player capabilities and maybe set their partner up more than we initially think... Not to detract from TG's world title, but that was a huge blip in the partnership's career. Afaik they never won anything of note ever again, cmiiw. He played very successfully with different partners though, I think he couldve won big titles with Budiarto or Wijaya instead of Haryanto as well.
Why does China keep doing this? Fu/Zhang was a good partnership although not as consistent as Fu/Cai.
I look at it as an age issue - Fu HF is 33, Zhang Nan, 26. Fu HF and Xu Chen,31, are at the tail end of their careers,both due for retirement actually. I think their pairing up is just to let them hang around for a couple years at most to see how it works out as well as for the time being when CBA is not yet sure they have a reliable and experienced top class pair to do duty in the major championships, such as the WC and the Sudirman Cup next year. Sort of a stopgap measure, I supposed. Of course, Zhang Nan with Fu Haifeng is always available when needed but I seriously doubt Fu HF will last until Tokyo 2020. Zhang Nan is definitely aiming for Tokyo 2020 Olympics, so it's imperative that he finds another partner capable enough asap to accompany him there all the way; hence I expect him to be trying out with different partners in MD and even in XD until the best match is found.
Well, I was just watching the denmark open today, and the question of Fu being the GOAT of MD was brought into question. Steen had the exact same opinion as I did.
This is definitely not a permanent pairing. It's just to avoid being fined by the BWF and keep them active.
