INA only sends Hendrawan and Chandra/Sigit.
Hendrawan is out.
Chandra/Sigit is gonna have to prove that they are indeed the best pair in the world.

Look at these:http://www.badmintonclub.com/items/zhuanti/ningbo/athletics.php

CHina has 21 MD pairs to beat!! If Chandra/Sigit can become the champion in this event I really salute them ...

out of the 21 how many can we really classify them as world class player?

God bless them both.

With 21 pairs it is possible to set up and wear out the best.

Remember World Champs Ladies Doubles and what happened to Ra Kyu Min ?

After the first couple of rounds some of the 21 Cn pairs will be eliminated, unless the tournament will be a gigantic round robin in each discipline :)

Of course, Ra also played mixed, which probably tired her out as well. I think Ra has only level of play: 110%.

out of 21 china pairs besides zhang/zhang the rest will lose in straight sets. i'm serious. one chandra/sigit is good enough

Well, they lost. DAMN. Liu Yong/Chen Qiqiu bt them by 7-3, 5-7, 7-2, 7-4, 6-8

so now the only threat to them is Wong Choong Hann. ALL THE WAY!!!

Well ?It's not as if it's first time, happened to invincible

Park Joo bong and Kim Moon Soo many years ago in China.

my apologies.... there's a mistake somewhere in the score... I just copied and pasted. Sorry... =P

btw, I certainly hope that the results have nothing more to it than home grd factors... and INA had better buck up before they lose their 3rd team title after Asia Cup and SEA Games.

I'm afraid the two top Indo mD pairs are a bit older than the Chinese ones and there are some still being groomed from the JWC semis and finals. Perhaps the days of Sigit and Chandra & Tony and Halim are about over. Remember how quickly Eng Hian and Limpele just went out like a lamp?
It is difficult to think of an Indo line-up for the Thomas Cup that can beat the Chinese juggernaut which isn't even moving at full throttle as this is just the opening gambit - to put the fear factor into play.
You can see why Camilla Martin just withdrew. She would have been wiped out by some unknown in Rd 1 or 2. Euripides.

Candra, Sigit and Tony are 26 this year. Halim is 25. The pair who defeated C and S, Liu Yong and Chen Qiqiu are 26 and 24 respectively. The Z-Z combi are both 24 this year. Not much of a diff, is there?

Having followed badminton for some time, I have never expected Flandy and Eng Hian to do well. Not even when the INA press was raving abt them following their victory over Lee Dong Soo/Yoo Yong Sung at last yr's MAS Open. They have neither the consistency nor the discipline to be among the best.

As for Camilla, I'm no ardent fan of hers but to say that she will be wiped out by some unknown in Round 1 or 2 is a bit of an exaggeration. As far as my memory serves me, the Chinese players that have beaten her the past few times - Zhang Ning, Dai Yun and GZC - are NOT unknowns. She did play an unknown, Wei Yan (who was World Junior Champion), at the Korea Open the beginning of this year. She won.

Liu Yong and Qiqiu are not the one's expect to become the next big MD pair from China - not even the Zhangs who are younger but too up-an-down. I'm thinking of a trend in the replacement of the leaders. Kim and Ha and then Lee and Yoo, who were almost unbeatable for years until the 3/4 Indo pairs came along, are now history. So will Tony-Halim and Chandra-Sigit be. The Indo MS lineup has gone bust definitely and now its going to be the MD, and in both cases its the Chinese who are going to be the nest leaders.
Camila may have beaten Chinese players in the past but not recently and I'm afraid that she is now scared of them - a realy psycho case when it comes to playing Chinese players - just any. Euripides

"Kim and Ha and then Lee and Yoo, who were almost unbeatable for years"

I don't find that statement to be true. Lee/Yoo (one of my fav pairs btw) has always been relatively inconsistent. They had a higher chance of losing agst the INA MDs, whether playing Candra/Sigit before S served his drug ban, or Tony/Candra afterwards. Kim and Ha were fantastic but never had a 100 per cent chance of beating the INAs. I would say head-to-head matches bwt Kim/Ha and T/C suggested they were more or less evenly matched, eg. they lost to T and C during the 99 WGPF and of course, during the Olympic semis, but beat them in the 99 WC quarters. We tend to think tt the Koreans "dominated" the MD during that period the way we view the current INA "dominance" of the MD, simply becoz we see two pairs from the same ctry playing each other too often. The truth is, there wasn't even an All-INA final in the WC MD this year.

"... and now its going to be the MD, and in both cases its the Chinese who are going to be the nest leaders."

How abt the MAS pair of Chan Chong Ming/Chew Chun Eng? I don't love them, but I see tremendous potential in them.

"Camila may have beaten Chinese players in the past but not recently"

I have no problem with this but my point was, and still is, that the players who have defeated her like Zhang Ning, Dai Yun and Gong Zhichao are definitely not unknowns.

I think the theory applies to every star, every body watches you on video until they can play you blinfolded. Except for Sun Jun who was so versatile, he can match opponennts in various styles.

I think the theory applies to every star, every body watches you on video until they can play you blinfolded. Except for Sun Jun who was so versatile, he can match opponennts in various styles.

interesting point about Sun Jun. i myself have problem adjusting to different opponents. i have been playing these few guys regularly. and they all have their own shots and styles, i play against them one by one, and i find that i need to change my tactics accordingly.

and my head really hurts at the end of the day, with the combination of physical tiredness, cramp (played for 5+hours), and mental tiredness, i was very ready for a long nap afterwards, only to find that i need to drive another 20 mins to get back home...

Haha.... yeah man. Chan/Chew are not to be taken lightly!! Especially under the guidance of great Park JB....... Sorry. This isn't a very constructive post. =P

I don't really know yr opponents Kwun, but fr last two months

I've been on a losing streak fr 2 months after changing club

with new opponents.

I always adopt phiosophy taught to me by Internationals, if your opponent is unknown give yr best and try to end game as soon as possible so u can play next game.

If u know yr opponent and match and skills even then the diff could be :

1) Nerves-overcome fear of opponent and his shots and try to unnerve him with some of yr own

2) Form- U can't win if strokes don't work on that day. That's what Cheung was trying to say.

3) Fitness and pace-If all fails see if u can outlast opponent by
giving him easy shots and some easy points but make sure he works like hell to earn those points.When he gets tired and overconfident give him a taste of own medicine.

Well, of course that is oversimplifying things by a long shot but it worked fr me.

I don't think there are many players like Sun, Frost, Gade,Han Jian? Inside those heads are locked valuable secrets of match
strategy, some of them have yet to be tapped.

Wow! And I thought you were all modest ordinary people sitting at your computers. Now you all talk like you are professionals, playing hours and hours (kwun, goes home with a headache after playing the whole lot of them one by one) - all in an afternoon, no doubt!! Maybe I should change my tactics in this forum too eh?
About Chan and Chew as upcoming WC (sic!) in MD? Not yet for a few more years. First get a GP tournament win then we'll discuss about how to discuss them in these columns. Naybe then it'll be too late and they'd be too old. Coco.

Wow! And I thought you were all modest ordinary people sitting at your computers. Now you all talk like you are professionals, playing hours and hours (kwun, goes home with a headache after playing the whole lot of them one by one) - all in an afternoon, no doubt!! Maybe I should change my tactics in this forum too eh?
About Chan and Chew as upcoming WC (sic!) in MD? Not yet for a few more years. First get a GP tournament win then we'll discuss about how to discuss them in these columns. Naybe then it'll be too late and they'd be too old. Coco.

Wow! And I thought you were all modest ordinary people sitting at your computers. Now you all talk like you are professionals, playing hours and hours (kwun, goes home with a headache after playing the whole lot of them one by one) - all in an afternoon, no doubt!! Maybe I should change my tactics in this forum too eh?
About Chan and Chew as upcoming WC (sic!) in MD? Not yet for a few more years. First get a GP tournament win then we'll discuss about how to discuss them in these columns. Naybe then it'll be too late and they'd be too old. Coco.

we are not ordinary people, we are <b> badminton fanatics! </b> :)

I think no one here mentioned that Chan/Chew will be the next world champs.

When do you consider it too late and too old? Chan is 21 this year. In a few years, he'll be 25 or 26 like the present Candra, Sigit, Tony, Kim DM and Ha TK, who'll then be around 30. Considering the recent GP results, they're the most frequent semi-finalists (in view of the fact that most of the finals are all-Ina affairs), beaten thrice by Candra/Sigit (Japan,Mas,Sin Opens) and Tony/Halim at WC. Considering that the other Kor/Ina pairs have all been around for quite sometime, this new pairing has shown the most improvement this year, performing more consistently than the Danes and the Chinese. Moreover, there aren't many outstanding new pairs around.

Perhaps there are some things you see in them that caused that remark. Please feel free to correct me.

Chan Chong Ming is a very outstanding doubles player,

something like Tony Gunawan , Park Joo Bong, Li Yong Bo

etc. There's the potential.

Chan Chong Ming is a very outstanding doubles player,

something like Tony Gunawan , Park Joo Bong, Li Yong Bo

etc. There's the potential.

the only matches i have seen of Chan/Chew was the WC semi. despite having fought a very close 3 games and lost, what impressed me was the Chan/Chew pair showed real sportsmenship. at the end of the game, they went up to the net, <b>smiled</b> and shook hands with Tony/Halim. and from the expression of their face, it was friendliness.

i think many top badminton players can learn a lot from them.

I agree. His movement is very good and has good consistency. Very fast as well.
Chew Chun Eng seems less consistent is can also be seen in the AE s/f of ?1999 when he was playing with Lee Wan Wah. That failing and losing just a few points (or serve advantage) can be the difference between winning and losing - WC s/f being one example.

In his favour, Chew does have an excellent serve.

Now we get some constructive comments about why people admire Chan/Chew. The last 3 from Bbn, kwun, Cheung suggest this pair should be watched. Tell me when they've won a tournament - till then all is potential. Coco-nuts

Chan was a 2 time WJC MD champion in 1996 and 1998, with different partners.
He also won the XD title in 1998.

He seems to be able to bring out the best in his partners. That's probably why Chew only started to perform well recently despite the fact that he's been around for some time.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion about Chan's pedigree. But I must confess that most of the WJC never made good in the senior ranks. Sun Jun and Luo Yigang (runner-up?) were exceptions. This is mainly true of the men.
Chan's initial success tho then very young was 5/6 years ago and he had 2 wns in 1998. Why hasn't he made the grade in the senior ranks for so long? Same with Khoo Kay Bin tho in his case he was defeated in the semis. Something's wrong with BA<M training system.

The story is different for the women's game where high-flyers in the WJC usually move quickly into the top of senior game. It is now dominated by WJC winners and runners-up dating from 1993, in almost all disciplines.
Coco-nuts

The difference is that the WJC MD and XD won by Chan with different partners went to a Malaysian and the BAM is to blame for not developing his potential.
The women's players from the WJC were almost 100% from China and they were all immediately groomed for stardom. So BAC is to be applauded for its systematic selection and promotion of upcoming talents. Pacifier.