Well being a proper badminton fanatic I ditched my friends on a Friday night to watch some really good badminton.

Got there 5 mins late, thanked whoever was up there I rode the motorbike instead of taking the car is there was no chance of getting a park went in as the players were warming up. Sat down in front of court three due to the presence of some friends there (Australia vs Thailand Uber cup), but really wanted to watch courts 1 (Malaysia v HK) and 2 (Sing v Japan).

WONG Choong Hann (MAS) v HARIYANTO Agus (HK)
Very one sided, Agus never got into the flow of his game. Wong totally dominated, his ability to smash at the lines from anywhere, including what seemed to me to be extremely unlikely body positions most impressive, both players had exceptional defence when smashed in the general direction of their body.

WIJAYA Indra (SING) v SATO Shoji (JAP)
This was a very good match, unfortunately as I was sitting with the Australian team and they were watching the match in front of me, I was quite often distracted and had to watch the match in front of me, resolved to move as quickly as I politely could. Indra totally dominanted in the first two sets, I was surprised that Shoji even managed to get 4 points in the second set. Third set everything changed, Shoji massively upped his speed of play, hitting his clears a lot flatter, taking the shots earlier, and in general became more aggressive. After winning the third set, he sped up even further, whether it was purely a confidence thing or not, I'm not sure, but the guy serioslu moved like an absolute blur, best 5x7 come back that I have seen.

LIU Kwok Wa & NJOTO Albertus (HK) v CHAN Chong Ming & CHEW Choon Eng (MAS)
Again very one sided, Hong Kong needs a new doubles coach, or these pairs need more practise together their communication and on court understanding sucked. Number of points that they lost because they weren't clear who was going to take the shot was astounding. Wa has one of the most deceptive serve returns I've seen though. In the ad court, with a near vertically upright racquet he swung as if to hit cross court and managed to move the racquet in that position across to flick incredibly fast given that he had no room for a backswing into the other corner.

SUSILO Ronald v OHTSUKA Shinya
Unfortunately I didn't watch enough of this to comment. To those of you that are interested I was watching Lenny v Polsana S (is she related to the other badminton playing Polsana?). Lenny was totally clueless in the first set, though this happens to her a lot, she's always been a slow starter. To 15 this wasn't a problem, but she lost of first set before even managing to focus. Played very well for the rest of the match, though needed five attempts to win her match point. Couple of things struck me, firstly how nice her movement and touch were, and how little smashing and power play there was. (okay I wasn't going to mention the Australian matches, but Lenny's a friend).

Moved in front of court 1.
NG Wei (HK) v ONG Ewe Hock (MAS)
Wei started this match very well, he was fast, aggresive, and completely in control, something like 4-0 before Ewe clawed his way back to 4-4. Some exceptional badminton was played, I actually thinnk Wei played much better than his compatriot Agus, however this could merely be because he wasn't playing Choong Han and could get into his game. At 4-6 a Ewe got pretty bad line call which turned the set, Wei ended up winning 8-6. First time I realised how partisan to Malaysia the crowd I was sitting with was, I may have appeared sitting behind two people waving a malaysian flag on malaysian tv ;)

Second set was pretty tight and good badminton, both players moving well, fast, deceptive (esp Wei) and strong, tough set won by Ewe.

Third set, this was strange as Wei looked tired. His clears weren't going the length of the court which was plain weird for a player of his calibre. Ewe had no problem picking them off with easy smashes getting a few easy points. 5-0 up, Ewe received an abysmal call, Wei's smash was clearly out by over an inch. Crowd went crazy, razzed the line judge for the rest of the match. I must say he deserved it.
This very nearly turned the third set too, Wei staged a huge comeback, but not to be, Ewe managed to close it off. Fourth set was more one sided than the 7-4 scoreline suggested. Good win to Ewe, surprised by Wei's lack of fitness.

WIJAYA Hendra (SING) v MASUDA Keita (JAP)
I didn't watch as much of this match as I would've liked since another friend of mine was playing. Basically it looked like a contrast of styles. Hendra was fast and tricky, Keita, slower, chunkier, smashed harder, eventually wore down Hendra.

Susan (AUS) v someone
Susan pulls off the luckiest win of her career (she's only 19, but she went pro in China at 17). After being down 2-6 in the first set, she finally wakes up and takes the first set 8-6. Back to the clueless stage for two more sets. Now I may be biased, since I'm friends with Susan, but she wasn't playing well at all. Down two sets to one, 2-6 in the fourth set, her opponents serves, two points into the rally, her opponent twists her knee and retires from the match.

Tsz Yin WONG & LAM Hoi Tak (HK) v CHANG Kim Wai & HONG Chien Hun (MAS)
See what I said about the Hong Kong doubles pair above, same thing, these guys didn't know how to play together.

Lok Tin TAM (HK) v LEE Tsuen Seng (MAS)
Lok Tin Tam, what is this guy doing playing for Hong Kong at the Thomas Cup, he's crap! Someone tell me he bribed his way in or something because if he's the third best player in Hong Kong, Hong Kong needs help. He got slaughtered, his shots aren't that bad, but he has no court awareness, one example was him leaving a shuttle that was at least six inches in from the line, very sad.

Okay this is where I left, getting bugged too much by my friends ;)

Hmm, tomorrow, finals Korea v Malaysia.

Thank you for this, greatly appreciated :o)

You were on Msian tv alright but which be you :

1) Elderly bespectacled guy

2) Indian/Middle Eastern guy

3) Young bespectacled guy.

4) None of the above.

Strange how Ng Wei plays with same style and footwork

as cheung's hero Lee Heung Il. Must be the coach.

Wow... impressive. It must have been tough diverting your attention.

Yes, Salakjit Polsana is the younger sister of Boonsak Polsana.

Hahahahahaha.... thanks a mil. I will do ANYTHING to get badminton here.... ANYTHING. In fact, I'm already thinking of ditching summer school so I can go home in advance.

Gosh, you're back!

Ng Wei is a rallier style. Likes to outmanoevre the opponent first.

Lam Hoi Tak is pretty young and inexperienced on the International scene.
Played him about perhaps 3 or 4 years ago in the doubles league. It was hard work then!!
Him and Wong Tsz Yin? That's something new so not surprised about the lack of understanding.

Tam Lok Tin, haven't seen much of him but the summing up was pretty consistent.

Dear Pecheur,
Did you watch the finals??

The prelim was an awesome experience with a lot of m'sian support as stated in thestar.com.my (for those who follow m'sian newspaper).

wht i also notice was that in the MD Final game (M'sia Vs Korea), one of the CHAN-CHEW pairing was able to return a smash, snap a string, get a replacement racket from his bag, get back into formation and still win the point. CHAN-CHEW pairing, excelllent defensive capabilities, with their help, m'sia were able to clean sweep the koreans in the finals.

needless to say the crowd went absolutely wild on that point. even a game as fast as MD, a person is able to quickly change rackets during a rally. something they teach u in training??? i not too sure, but that was the level fighting spirit that the had.

also i've noticed (i haven't watched WONG Choong Hann before, but during hiss singles, u look at his eyes and he'll bloody stare an opponent down and intimidate him. whether he wins or loses the point, he'll just stare fiercely at u. do that on the street and he'll get clobbered for sure............fierce fellow on court that guy.

Congradulations to PARK Joo Bong, who was also inducted into Badminton hall of fame for his services as a badminton player and how as coach. That presentation was made during the prelim finals.

Was that player who changed racket the right-hander or the left-hander?

left i think.............so that would be the younger 22yo wong CM.

honestly not too sure now.

maybe someone who was also there could confirm the player.

they should show the delay broadcast on RTM1 in m'sia.

when m'sia was playing the MD CHAN/CHEW both were serving extremely well, managing to deceive the Koreans and co on many occasions. so much so that in the final the koreans twice make the service judge know of their disapproval, but they still got tricked by he serve to the back court.

the other deception was the drop shot by Pramote of Thailand, big fellow in size, but his drop have a high rate of catching players out of position or unable to read the shot. Caught the m'sian pair a few times.

I find that the HK female team is a surprising outfit, managing to go the distance in the prelim rounds, but their WD pair cannot match the experience and skill of the Koreans. The disappointment was the Indonsian females, lets just say a lot of the passionate indo supporters started to turn against their poor performing compatriots.

I find that the Japanese have the greatest level of fitness, they cover the court efficiently, movement is quick, stamina is high..............but i dunno, maybe technique and the winning shts are just alluding them............the IBF is still considering the switch back to 15x5 system, coz there was a qtnaire that everyone was asked to fill in and it basically asked whether the new system makes the game more attacking/defensive, whether the period of time is right or not for each game.

in one instance, the game 5 of the deciding match btn korean and HK WD, 0-0 i went to the toilet for a leak, when i returned back, the game was already over 7-0 to korean. under 5 min, if i knew it would be so quick, i would have tolerated n kept it in :)

MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!

That is so right mate.

Oh and that MD player to look out for was Tesana, not pramote.

Just a couple of comments.

Chan/Chew have excellent disguise on their flick serves. They might even be the best in the world at this particular stroke (at this particular time).

The HK ladies concentrate mainly on singles and have to also play as doubles pairs. My view of the other ladies players in the squad is that they are really not yet up to the rigors of international competition. Many are really quite young and less experienced (though still better than me!).

Do you think the Japanese tend to play to a set routine more? Bit difficult for them to change things around when things don't work out?

thanks to you and Pecheur for the background info.

between which Chew is a better server than Chan. His flicks are always very effective, and serves more unpredictably, provided he is playing his usual standard. That was why Park was worried if the new serving rule in doubles were to take place, Chan will be disadvantaged if the score is always odd or if he is stuck on the right.

Thanks.

huh? it was just my opinion. I really know nothing much about techniques. =P