"The men's doubles event welcomes back a familiar face - Olympic and world champion Tony Gunawan makes a comeback on the world stage, playing under the USA banner rather than that of his native Indonesia. Instead of enjoying his usual high-seeded status, he's forced to go through the qualifying rounds with partner Bob Malaythong, and also features again in the mixed doubles with Mesinee Mangkalakiri" <-- from www.worldbadminton.net

what is he doing? part time professional? as i think it's the holidays in the US right now...

sometimes i don't agree with "buying" players. USAB is trying to get Tony a green card, then Tony will be able to play for the US, thus boosting the rankings of "US" players.

Originally posted by kwun
sometimes i don't agree with "buying" players. USAB is trying to get Tony a green card, then Tony will be able to play for the US, thus boosting the rankings of "US" players.

Is that a good news or bad news? If US got a place in the ranking, the media will start broadcasting badminton on the TV. :D

Tony apparently has also been coaching too. He and Bob had an exhibition match with Kevin Han and Howard Bach down at the US National recently.

You can catch streamed video of the match at http://www.playbadminton.com. Isn't his girlfriend living down there?

As for good/bad news, I wondered how some of the other US players feel about this as with Tony on, he's taking a spot that would otherwise gone to another player.

his gf is living, *cough*, in the Bay Area......

Originally posted by kwun
his gf is living, *cough*, in the Bay Area......

And how would you know that Kwun? Has his girlfriend been walking around with a T-shirt that reads "Tony Gunawan's House of Love" ?

I agree with Nic..may be a good thing if US pick up badminton..we may get sponsors!

i have connections lah.... i mean, real and reliable connections. not those flaky types....

Originally posted by Winex West Can
As for good/bad news, I wondered how some of the other US players feel about this as with Tony on, he's taking a spot that would otherwise gone to another player.

That will put more pressure and challenge on the US players, by this way, they might train harder in order to play better. Sometimes, outsourcing is not totally bad at all. :p

wich video format did u guys/wimen use ?
windows video player? cause i can't see any of the matches, it says "no commbination of filter could be used"

Use real player...

I read in one website a few weeks ago actually Tony wanted to play for Indonesia for Malaysia Open, but after that didnt hear anything... only yesterday then i sawa his name on the draw list.. quite shocked at first....

So, kwun, is Etty Tantri still playing badminton also??

Tony is a coach/player for USA, right now he has taken the spot of a player named amarit Rojsirivit. Amarit and Bob were playing together for a few years, and now USAB imported tony and had tony sign a contract to play for USA under the Orange county badminton club. Tony just got married to to his fiancee in Vegas, him and his wife will move to S. california where he will play and his wife will go to school. Sure this helps the US players a bit but not much, I used to train on the national team for 2 years and i know the level of players like kevin and howard and bob, so far their level has increased but still not to the point of true international level, If US players want to reach a higher level and bring USA badminton into the spotlight, they need to play more "Real" international events, not those S. american, less than 1 star tournaments, just to get the points. Right now they are in Malaysia, and plan on a trip to the Chinese taipei open, after that who knows? The USAB if funded by the USOC, and the USOC doesnt care about how well their players do in the malaysian open, they only care about the Olympics, i belive that the plan is to qualify as many US players for the olympics as possible, and who knows, maybe USAB thinks they can medal with tony at the helm. :confused: :confused:

I had a chance to talked to Tony during the BAJO Spring 2003. He was very nice and very friendly. He seems to loose a lot of weight. It was a nice to talk to somebody from that was born in the same area as I am, especially who knows the dialect.

Overall, I see Tony as someone who is trying to be with someone whom he loved and also trying to make a living to support his new family. During our talk, he shared with me many difficulties from many sides. I am surprised that he is that strong and tough to go through it. Furthermore, I am surprised that PBSI has granted his request to let him play in Malaysian Open. A praise to PBSI from me for this though I should criticize them for a lot of other things!

Though many people, especially from Indonesia, will see this as a negative thing, they should remember that he already done a lot for his country. Now it's his turn to do something for his family.

Thus, I wish Tony the best and hope that he will be successful as badminton needs more friendly and dedicated people like him.

Thanks for the info that u all prvides... Long time dun hear about him since he left Indonesia...

Wanna wish him all the best too!!!

IMHO, Tony G is the best double player the world has seen the last 5 years. Just knowing he is back on the court makes me smile - i don't care which country he represents and if his wife is being educated in the US i truly understand him wanting to be there.

maybe he can pass on some knowledge to kwun....ha ha ha ha....

btw, he is ready for the main competition - that's great!

Yes, happy to hear that he's back on the court... He's still to young to retire as a player and its kinda wasted if he has to stop now....

=)

How about....

USBA employ Tony to play and coach the team for the following reasons:
1) US players get a coach with International experience
2) Doubles players can get to play with the coach and hopefully progress further in tournaments (thereby get more experience with every trip away from home)
3) Singles players are freed up to concentrate on singles rather than having to split their time on doubles

I personally doubt USBA employed Tony to represent US and win an Olympic medal, though anything is possible.

thanks, Cheung for your clear and reasoned presentation of what I think is the most likely motivation for USAB to make a deal with Tony. I also agree with the view that Tony has already done a huge amount for Indonesia and deserves a bit of cake for himself. I am happy to see him here in US, and hope the US team will benefit from his presence.

Now if people will stop taking up so much of my time at work, maybe I can go see him play somewhere. For the first time I will be able to see a top player in action without having to leave my country! (Need a cheering face here, kwun)

Countries importing/exporting athletes happens all the time in all kinds of sports. Sometimes it comes back to haunt somebody (I'm thinking S. Korea-Italy WC soccer here).

I think Tezta hit on a good point about the US team. If they just train with each other, their improvement is limited by each others' level of skills. Countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Denmark at least have several good international players on their own squads who can challenge each other constantly.

Wouldn't everyone agree that you need to often play people better than you, or at least different that what you're used to, for significant improvement?

Well, Gunawan and Malaythong are now in the main draw as Qualifier Three. They seemed to go through qualifying pretty easily, winning 15-4/15-0, 15-2/15-3, and 15-6/15-5.

They face seventh seeded Chinese pair Cheng and Wang in the first round.

Phil

Oops, didn't see that Fourcas already mentioned that he is on the main round.

Oh well, he didn't post the scores. :D

Phil

Guess Tony Gunawan is a perofessional player.He can play well whoever his partner is....

I agree that we need to play with better player to improve our own skills... but one thing to remember is that we must always have the nid of thinking that we can beat that Better player.. we cant just play with that player and always think that he's better than us and we wont be able to beat him.... Yes... It takes time to upgrade the skill.. but nothing is impossible right.. as long as we have strong will and perseverance.... =)

About representing USA for Olympics.. this one still not so sure.. cos he's still Indonesian right???

Too bad.

Tony and Bob lost to the Chinese pair 7/15, 12/15.

Phil

Just read from newspaper that Tony is supposed to be Still under Indonesia flag.. The official from the association seems not to know much about this... so?? which one is correct??

Hope there will be no "Taufik" case again (when he went to Singapore and seemed that there were some problems)

The US coach told me that tony came to america to go to school and be with this GF/wife. I don't know if he told PBSI that he planned to play for USA, but as of right now, tony has a contract to play for USA and is getting a special Visa for top athelets in america. He will probably be able to play for USA....If PBSI lets him.

He will probably be able to play for the US under the individiual tourneys but would not be able to play for the US for those tourneys which require the players to be citizens of the countries

As Cheung suggested earlier, importing strong players to U.S. is
actually a good idea. Whatever U.S. has been doing in the past
apparently is not working. They need new blood, thinking and
training routines. Representing U.S. to get higher ranking is good,
but just doing that would be rather short-sighted.

Hopefully, U.S. gets one Tony initially, but he clones himself
many times here.

I'd out of date here. What happens to Ardy?

Ardy is helping train Canadian players now.

Phil

Heard Ardy is in Canada now...
Agree with u Tezta.. it depends if PBSI lets him to play for USA or not.. just wait and see...

What would/could PBSI do if Tony in fact plays for U.S.??

i don't know, but Taufik was trying to play for Singapore, and PBSI some how managed to drag him back into Indonesia. how did they do that we may never know. but we do know they have some "reach" if they want to....

For Taufik's case... last time i heard that he didnt follow the procedure of leaving a country to play for another country... But i guess for Tony's case it wont be a problem...