What Can be Expected At the Korean Open

[X Ball]

The Korean Open promises to be a tournament worth watching because whoever wins will gain a lot of respect for the coming World Championship.

It should be star-studded because I cannot imagine any country not sending their top players to this tournament to be ready for the World Championship the following month.

As such, everyone who is anyone will be there. The likes of LD, LCW, CJ, CY, CH, PG, TH, Boonsak, LYI, and more will fight for the title prior to becoming World Champion.

The style of play would be fast, hard running, and lots of smashes. No one would give this game away -- they would want to prime themselves up. Players like Chen Jin, Chen Yu are all peaking at the right time --- they are the players to reckon with in Badminton. These players showed us that they can mix it with LD and LCW in terms of speed and footwork, besides skills in power smashing and neat dropshots.

LD obviously took a rest to be prepared for this, and many thought LCW should have too (but maybe he did by his fast exit). And did PG also read the game plan and decided for a fast exit ? Will Chen Jin continue with his winning way against these top players at the Korean Open ?

One thing is very clear : you need to play at your top in the KO. If not, don't bother to turn up or your reputation will be tarnished !

[Dreamzz]

yeah, it should be a good platform just before the WC. have any of the countries confirmed their entries yet?

[X Ball]

I think most countries would send their reps. This is a 6* blue ribbon event. If they don't send, then it ought to be something wrong.

[X Ball]

Is there any prizemoney for 3rd, 4th and 5th ? Or is it strictly 1st and 2nd price only ?

[X Ball]

Really shouldn't they have some money for Semi Finalists ?

[hydrocyanic]

if you ask me, top performers will not be concentrated in korea open, as HK open is also around the clock, and both are 6 stars tournament...

poor arrangement if you ask me

[Loh]

Really shouldn't they have some money for Semi Finalists ?

Of course, even quarter finalists and others should get something. The prize money (US$300K ?) should be enough to compenstate the pros who came from faraway! :D

Well, as in all matches, some will win, some will lose, no matter who you are and how well-prepared. Lady Luck also plays a part. There is only one champion in any event.

There shouldl be no excuse for those who lose. There is no such thing as giving away points and giving away matches. So please don't come up with lame excuses on behalf of your idols and accept the fact that the winner is a better player on the day! :rolleyes:

(Not sure though if teammates should meet from the QF onwards, whether the higher ranked player will concede to allow his compatriot to score more points for the WC?)

Really keen to know which of the world's best will be participating. I'm sure some need NOT to participate to score additional points just so that they can enter the WC.

[DinkAlot]

We can expect the Koreans to do well in this tournament. :D

[Loh]

Yes, certainly the Koreans will give of their best on home ground, but to win a title, it may be a gigantic task if the world's best decide to converge here.
It will be much different from the recently-concluded Thailand Open, where the Korean players excelled! :D

[event]

Really shouldn't they have some money for Semi Finalists ?I can assure you that the semi-finalists get prize money and I expect that quarter-finalists get some too. Last year, there were 5 events all offering the 6* minimum of US$250,000. If you look at the finals day photos for a few of these - ie Korea (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21299), Indonesia (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27091), Hong Kong (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28019), China (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28203) - you'll notice a pattern of amounts on the winners' cheques:

MS - 20,000
WS - 17,250
WD - 15,250
XD - 15,250
MD - 18,000

Even if they gave the same prize money to the runners-up (which they don't) that would still only total 171,500. In fact, all the runner-up cheques I've seen in the photos say US$10,000 including the runner-up in the top-dollar event - men's singles. Even if they gave US$10,000 to all 5 runners-up and all ten semi-finalists, the total would still be only US$235,000 so obviously the quarter-finalists get prize money.

[event]

if you ask me, top performers will not be concentrated in korea open, as HK open is also around the clock, and both are 6 stars tournament...

poor arrangement if you ask meThis cluster arrangement is normal. Players travelling from outside Asia don't want to cross multiple time zones too often. A group of 2 events is better than a group of 4 or 5 events, such as the Philippines-Indonesia-Singapore-Malaysia-Taipei concentration in June or the Japan-China-Denmark-Netherlands concentration in October, which starts 2 weeks after WC. This one is more like the Macau-Thailand mini-Asia-tour that just finished, only with a little more money and a lot more points up for grabs. Those two events were quite well attended by top players.

As for the ranking incentive, someone will likely do the math but players like Zhang Ning or Lin Dan may be assured of keeping their top 2 spots even if they don't play in Korea or Hong Kong so they might keep resting. The players lower in the top 10 should be hungry come late August.

Some will inevitably choose one over the other. Korea offers slightly more prize money. Hong Kong is a more international city. Korea's home court advantage is more likely to produce winners than Hong Kong's because of the strength of Korea's contenders. Playing Korea instead of Hong Kong gives you one extra week of rest before the WC. Korea may have more of a reputation for biased line judging. Tough call.

I hope that there will again be strong contingents from Malaysia and Indonesia. We usually get a vibrant cheering section for these teams and that injects a lot of energy into the atmosphere of the hall.

[armortec800]

of rest before the WC. Korea may have more of a reputation for biased line judging. Tough call.


That means Taufik will be absent....

[X Ball]

I think it would not be too long before we see top players being paid appearance money to play -- this is the case with golf, athletics, tennis.

Then I would like to be an agent for LCW. LOL

[Loh]

I think it would not be too long before we see top players being paid appearance money to play -- this is the case with golf, athletics, tennis.

Then I would like to be an agent for LCW. LOL

LCW may want to know your credentials first as your competitor is the one closest to his heart! :D

[event]

That means Taufik will be absent....Yes, Taufik stormed off the court during the Asian Games men's team competition in 2002 and swore he'd never play here again. He still played the individual and won the gold and he actually showed up at the Korea Open in 2004. He was apparently sick and lost in the first round to Sergio Lopis of Spain.

[X Ball]

LCW may want to know your credentials first as your competitor is the one closest to his heart! :D

Hahaha, then I might not have a chance.

[taufik-ist]

Yes, Taufik stormed off the court during the Asian Games men's team competition in 2002 and swore he'd never play here again. He still played the individual and won the gold and he actually showed up at the Korea Open in 2004. He was apparently sick and lost in the first round to Sergio Lopis of Spain.

Chaerul Tanjung also punched the linesman :rolleyes:

[EastDevil]

I think it would not be too long before we see top players being paid appearance money to play -- this is the case with golf, athletics, tennis.

Then I would like to be an agent for LCW. LOL

Something more personal would be better like Tiger Wood's caddy. Big bucks... :D

[nugroho]

you can wait for the fullteam of Indonesia. they will likely sent their fullteam for the warm up before WC on september...

i red the article on www.bolanews.com (http://www.bolanews.com)

so... Good luck indonesia!!!
:)

[event]

As for the ranking incentive, someone will likely do the math but players like Zhang Ning or Lin Dan may be assured of keeping their top 2 spots even if they don't play in Korea or Hong Kong so they might keep resting. The players lower in the top 10 should be hungry come late August.In terms of seeding for the World Championships, these two events will be very important. It depends when they do the seeding, of course. If they do it right before the Worlds, then last year's WC points will be gone by then and their last chance for points will have been the Korea and HK Opens. Once the HK Open is played this year, the new ranking system will make last year's HK Open points disappear. That means that players who did well at the HK Open last year, and possibly at the WC, will lose a big chunk of ranking points right before this year's WC. For someone like Lin Dan, that means almost 10,000 of his 40,000 points! In other words, if he skips both Korea and Hong Kong, he could easily drop to fifth place and end up having to face LCW in the Quarter-finals or something. People who are poised to springboard off the points from these events include players who either didn't play, or didn't finish well in the WC or HK Open last year: for example, Chen Jin, Lee Hyun-il, Hafiz, and even Boonsak Ponsana.
In the women's singles rankings, it's the same. Xie and Zhang stand to lose 10,500 points each while Pi, Wang, and Xu all stand to lose around 7,000 points. So even if Zhang Ning were to skip one and win the other 6* event, Pi Hongyan could end up as the WC top seed by simply making the semis of both tournaments.

[event]

Well, the BAM website notes that the 2005 WC points will come off before this year's WC's seedings are done. Add to that, the loss of the 2005 HK Open points and the ranking points would be as follows for any top men's singles players who enter neither the Korea nor Hong Kong Open this year:

Lee Chong Wei - 35073.02
Chen Jin - 32329.32
Peter Gade - 30829.17
Lin Dan - 30403.13
Hafiz - 27333.91
Lee Hyun-il - 27148.8
Chen Hong - 26880
Jonassen - 24948.18
Bao Chunlai - 22745.36
Boonsak Ponsana - 21620.05

5400 points should be up for grabs for the winner of each tournament. If seedings mean anything for these guys, they have to play both tournaments. On the other hand, since it looks so unlikely that Lin Dan will end up in the top 2, if he's the guy they all want to avoid, then being in the top 2 will not necessarily prevent a match with him prior to the finals. There are so many permutations. The other thing is that because the IBF only counts the top 10 events in the last year, winning the Korea Open will mean, for most of them, adding 5400 points but then removing their 10th best result from the last 12 months. For most of them, that means around 2000 points.

[event]

Well, not too many particulars but the Badminton Times magazine claims that 9 of the top 10 men's doubles pairs will compete in Korea and that 7 of the top 10 in each of the other categories will compete.

In doubles, they claim that Lee/Choong will be here as well as Chan/Koo but that contradicts what has been posted elsewhere.

They also say that LCW and Taufik and Peter Gade will be here but they don't mention Lin Dan.

[Han]

I don't think China will send the same players to both the Korea and Hong Kong Opens, too close to WC to stretch to the limit for the players. The same can be said about players for other nations who are in contention for the titles. If Lin Dan skip Korea then he will be in Hong Kong Open. Injury is what need to be avoided for those top guns, not raking points at this stage ...