the best ?

[Ming]

who is da gayest badminton player ever ?

[Ming]

hahaaaa

[May]

U.

[Mag]

Don't know about the gayest, but the best the world has ever seen would undoubtedly be indonesian Rudy Hartono.

[ming]

may ..
u seem pissed off
r u gay ?

[cooler]

has anyone taped rudy's games? i should like to see his talents

[viver]

I would not say 'undoubtly Rudy Hartono' for he had never played either Hou Jia Chang or Tang Hsien Fu both from China. In their prime, both Chinese players never lost to anybody other than between themselves. At one time there was really a big discussion as who was the best: Hartono the winner of All-England or the 2 Chinese who had not lost to any player they played. A match between China and Indonesia was scheduled to play in India (neutral territory) and both countries would send their best players. China won the match but Indonesia did not send Hartono so the best was still undecided.

Erland Kops, Danish player and All England champion (66 and 67??) having played both Hartono and Tang Hsien Fu thinks the latter as the best. He was soundly beaten by Tang Hsien Fu in Denmark in 2 games and has Tang's photo enlarged to life size and placed in his office (source Malaysian Star).

[Mag]

Nice anecdote about Erland Kops, Viver. And I confess to being a little categorical in my statement :) But still, Rudy Hartono won the All England 8 times, of which 7 in succession! And when he took his first AE title in 1968 he was just 17 years old.

<br><br><img src="http://www.dn.se/DNet/articles/76200-76299/76288/hartono.jpg">

[Kelvin]

That's totally awesome... I think I'll learn more about our history, and our previous champions as well. :)

[Kelvin]

Maybe if we had a time machine it would be better? :)

[Adel]

According to my parents, he was also a VERY VERY good-looking player (better than any today) and had all the gals screaming every time he played. Can't comment on that coz my standards differ from theirs =)

[viver]

It's not an anecdote about Erland Kops. He was so soundly beaten (I think at that time he was the reigning All England champion) that he had Tang's photo enlarged to life size. Punch Gunalan from Malaysia is another elite player that played with both and also considers Tang the all time greatest - better than Yang Yang, Zhao Jian Hua and ... Rudy Hartono.

According to a former Chinese world champion actually living in Vancouver, all Chinese national players have to watch Tang Hsien Fu's technique as they consider it the model for them to follow. And according to his analysis, had both of them met in a match he would favour Tang for the following reasons: power and speed.

Anyways these are speculations however. Hartono played in the tournaments where China was not allowed to. It would have been nice if Indonesia had the courage to send Hartono to play either Hou Jia Chang or Tang Hsien Fu in India. Then we would not be discussing this, right? ;-))

[cooler]

i would sure like to see tang hsieh fu on tapes :)

[viver]

I've seen him in person playing. When practicing drops shots from baseline during the warm up, the shuttle travelled at my smash speed. Interesting to watch that the bird when coming close to the net it appears to lose the speed suddenly and drop quickly landing a good 1 or 2 feet behind the service line. Pity is at that time the camcorders were not as popular as they are now.

[cooler]

viver, what year was it, 1960's, 1970's or 1980's ? I just want to figure out what type of badminton equipment in that era to still ablel to make those shots

[viver]

That was in 1976 or 77?. Saw him playing in Hong Kong Invitational Tournament as China was still not a member of IBF. His racquet is -- Aeroplane, same brand as the shuttles and strings I believe, natural guts strings, Chinese made. About those shots is pure technique. Saw Hou Jia Chang able to do the same.

[cooler]

lucky you.

I think the downside of badminton becoming a mainstream sport (one day) is that we enthuists would not see all the essence of badminton. Driven to winning in a 7x5 scoring system, players would use short term strategies and avoid riskier shots, playing just to win. I hope i'm wrong on this.

[viver]

I think I agree with you on that. Somebody mentioned that Haryanto Arbi is considering a comeback. It's possible for him to do well since his biggest weapon is the smash and attack in net. Changing the format is really giving an edge to players that do not have balanced skills in badminton.

[cooler]

IBF had briefly tried 9x5 scoring system. Why did they scrap it? 9x5 could strike a right balance of badminton play style between 15x3 and 7x5 score system.

[viver]

I don't know. Probably 45 points takes too much time? For sure I do not understand the theory behind this. If time was a problem for sponsors, what about the 3/4 hours tennis matches?
In clubs we use to play 1 set of 15 points. With these changes coming are we going to change for a set of 7 points?