Agree with your analysis. For those interested in the reason of ZB/GL walkover, see here: http://www.chinabadminton.com/ball/Announce/announce.asp?BoardID=4000&ID=2973471&Upflag=1&Num=1
BUT, if Flandy/Vita WIN today (still a big if, considering they have not played Clark/Kellogg before), then, they WILL edge out one of the Chinese pairs in their qualification for Olympics. Flandy/Vita: 68179+6420(-5039) for SF finish = 69560 Xie/Zhang: 66760+6420(-5040)+7000(-6420) = 68620 -- this is assuming Xie/Zhang win today and ALSO WIN the Badminton Asia Championships (if they take part in it). He/Yu (bigger chance of qualification): 64690+9200(-4800)+7200(-5040) = 71050 -- assuming He/Yu go on to WIN BOTH titles at the Swiss Open and India Open in early April. It's all about numbers at this point....
Another WD match has yet to be scheduled today: Gao Ling/Zhao Tingting vs Du Jing/Yu Yang. I vote for Du Jing/Yu Yang to receive a free pass.
BCL vs Taufik: (60-40) Taufik is no where near his best, and BCL will chalk up with another win. I doubt Taufik could drag it to rubber Susilo vs Wacha: (65-35) I have a feeling that Susilo will go far in Swiss. I'll take him beating Wacha in a straight but tight games. SINGAPORE BOLEH...!!!
Headline: The after-effect of the AE Final: Due to waist injury, Zheng Bo decided to forfeit the match today (against He/Yu) for the sake of aggrevating further injury before the Olympics. To cut lots of writings about the results of yesterday's matches involving Chinese XD pairs, the journalist asked Zheng Bo whether his injury affected his performance in the match against Chen Hung-Ling/Chou Chia-Chi and Zheng Bo admitted to it, claiming that he never even smashed the bird in the first set (是跟我的伤有关系啊,我都没有杀球)。 That's why the scoreline was so close, with the Chinese pair winning it 22-20. Incidentally, his waist injury was almost similar to Chen Jin's and Zheng Bo even said that he wasn't even willing to play yesterday (腰受伤了,跟陈金的那个差不多,昨天晚上就不想打了)。 On whether this is an old or new injury, Zheng Bo claimed that this is a new injury, and was inflicted during the AE Final against Nova/Butet. In the second set, the INA pair forced Zheng Bo to retrieve a lot of shots which made his waist uncomfortable. Until now, he's still feeling some numbness and that hurts a lot! (ye333 might give a better translation than me here -- 新伤,以前我腰从来没有疼过,就是在全英赛决赛跟印尼的诺瓦/纳西尔他们打的时候伤的。第二局他们老让我后仰多,平的球多,腰挤得多。现在从臀部到腿麻,麻麻的感觉,疼啊)。 When asked whether he felt bad about having to forfeit the match, Zheng Bo answered with a resounding NO. They had won too many titles anyway and he does not want the waist injury to affect his performance in the Beijing Olympics (弃权了会感到遗憾吗?不遗憾。拿了冠军拿太多,到奥运会的时候如果腰不行了) He further mentioned that their ranking points are enough for them to maintain their no 1 spot in XD, even if they do not participate in the last tournament (Badminton Asia Championships) (积分比他们(印尼的诺瓦/纳西尔)高太多了,之后的比赛都不打了也没有问题。我们的世界排名积分比他们高1万多分,这次全英又拿了(冠军)就更高) . My comment on the last part: I think Zheng Bo is wrong in his information here. As of yesterday's ranking list, Nova/Butet are ranked no 1, above Zheng/Gao Even after excluding results from May-Jul 2007 (definitely not going to be counted for the seeding process), Nova/Butet's points (58300) are above Zheng/Gao (52900). It's possible that the INA pair could pipe the Chinese pair as the top-seed in Beijing.
It's an interview conducted to Zheng Bo after their win over the Taiwanese pair Chen/Chou. When asked why Zheng did not smash much against the Taiwanese pair as compared to All England last week, Zheng explained that he was affected by his "new" waist injury. The "new" injury was a "side effect" from the final of All England last week. Zheng also stated that they are ahead of the closest rival by more than 10000 points and it would be better for them to rest ahead of the Beijing Olympic.
Thanks for the translation badmania. The injury sounds genuine and quite painful. He needs to work on his maths though
which i really don't understand, Zheng/Gao was No.1 last week, how come they become NO.2 after they win the title of AE2008?
choi, choi ,choi!!! the match also not yet start, we must have faith in chong wei that he can do it!!
Check the ranking list They basically defended the AE, so, no extra points for that. However, they LOST the 18400 pts from last year's Malaysia and Korea Open titles, since they skipped both events early this year. That means their points also dropped by 18400, replaced by 10800 (from Singapore and China Opens QF). This contributed to -7800 pts loss for them. Nova/Butet didn't have good AE points last year, but, they got the runner-up last week, which means an addition of 7800 pts for them, which allows them to overtake Zheng/Gao as the new World No 1 for the time being.