QF day at any tournament is usually a good day, with plenty of quality matches, and this one didn't disapoint. It was down to three courts, from thursday when there were 6. Combined that the scoring wasn't working and no sound from the umpires it wass very difficult to follow the scores on thursday.

I managed to see bits of most matches, however concentrated on the most interesting and tried to watch the non-tv courts (as I can watch those later!)

MS:


Lin Dan played very well against KJ after a tough few matches on previous days. Kenneth let lin control the pace and attacks. Kenneth seems a shadow of his performance in WC 2003, DEN really need some new singles players soon.

Gade controlled the game against Chen Jin, and he never let up. Chen is fast with OK footwork, but he is quite predictable. I stand by comments made on thursday that he needs to improve his racket skills and tactics to be a world class player, with the style he plays, he may win some tournaments, but he lacks the X factor to win when required.

Lee hyun Il was imperious against sato, who could not impose his speed on the game and lacked the power to finish the rally.

LCW against CH was a tremendous match with some terrific badminton, but it was an anticlimax to see chen Hong reverting to the old chen and following the same pattern of finding a winning position, missing a few match points, then hoping for LCW to make mistake and attacking incorrectly. LCW is the fastest player on the circuit IMO, has a powerful smash and is skillful. More comments on LCW in SF thread.

MD:

CTF/LWW were too strong for the young koreans. Jung didn't have the power to beat MAL defence and were not strong enough to defend MAL attack. a simple victory, but Lee Yong Dae is definitely one to watch for the future.

Lin/Tazari were as impressive as the previous day against Laybourn and Paaske, despite the danish pairs defence being stronger than Cai/Fu they were stillquick and powerful enough to break it down, and were not too disturbed by the danish angle variation.

Eriksen/Luungard were strong against the chines pair, who are a class below but put up a good fight.

Abdul/Gan were the last match of the day agains Luluk/alven and the match continued until well after midnight. Luluk /alven were content to defend for the first game and MAL were too agressive and too quick in midcourt for INA, but they came back in the second through pure aggression from Alven. Luluk seemed to be carrying a slight injury, but he often has a bandage on his thigh. I think he carries too much weight. A fantastic match and MAl were worthy winners, INA tried hard but MAL were always two steps at least ahead of them.

All WS matches quite self revealing, although a shock that Mia lost the first game to Wang chen and won in three. Wang chen has all the shots and weapons to win, but makes simple errors at crucial points, and shys away from the killer finish.

WD all simple victories for the respective players.

XD was simple victories except for the ENG pair. Intruth the CHN pair can count themselves unlucky. they lost the first game despite being in a good position as Zhang Yawen was slow to start and get into the match. Xie Zhongbo is very big and awkward looking for a chinese player, but quite effective. ENG pair flashed in and out of concentration as usual, but came back from dead to seal the victory.

A good days badminton but a very late night as I had two hours drive home after play finnshed 0045 at night (morning)