Hey, friend, that's exactly what I've been thinking too, but not just for the finals, glad to find a like-minded person. However, in order to be fairer to MAs who lack the depth of talents, the format should be contested beginning with the first five disciplines each, i.e. MS1, WS1, MD, WD, XD, and then only MS2 and WS2 as and when necessary. The most obvious advantage of such an expanded tie is we get to see at least four matches of 4 disciplines being contested unlike the current format where we fairly often have 3 - 0 or 3 - 1 and very few with all five matches played at the knockout stage. By making sure that it's best-of-seven format instead of best-of-five format, we're much more likely to have all five disciplines contested, i.e. much more 4 - 1 or 4 - 2 kind of outcomes that can possibly go down to the wire, such as 5 - 1 or 5 - 2 results. That's because it's so difficult and rare for any one MA to dominate in all the five disciplines.
For Sudirman Cup, I think Mixed Doubles must not be the last match of the final since there won't be any Mixed Doubles in Thomas/Uber Cups. Mixed Doubles must be played at the final of Sudirman Cup no matter what, either as the first or third match.
Sudirman cup was initially designed to have more doubles because at the time China dominated in singles but not any doubles so Indonesia would have a better chance, which actually benefited Korea. China started the ruling when they created the GOAT WD in the mid 90's and never looked back, until now.
KOR vs. THA should be very interesting bc it is very open. Korea should secure MS, but everything else is very close!
Doubles play is what really sets badminton apart from tennis and table-tennis-- there is so much strategic and tactical play that you rarely just throw 2 good players together to compete whenever necessary like in tennis and table-tennis... So I would rather Thomas/ Uber Cup be decided by 3 men's/ women's double and 2 singles just like the Sudirman Cup (and maybe let only mixed doubles play in the Sudirman Cup since they can't compete in the Thomas/ Uber Cup?)-- but these tournaments are singles-heavy for the simple reason that doubles requires more manpower/ resources... But before coming up with any more ideas for bigger ties or more matches to stack the game in your favourite team's favour, you need to come up with the $$$ for everything and everyone-- even if you come up with the $$$ for such a ridiculously long tournament, 7-match Ties will probably kill Tiers 2-3 and reduced Tier 1 to 4-8 competing teams; GER, RUS, TPE, HKG will all drop out like ENG and you "powerhouse nations" can just play badminton amongst yourselves...
LOL, it is no small thing when you are being "unfair" to the sponsors/ organizers and asking for the courts to be left empty even for a half-day-- unless you can ask Carrara Stadium & hotels, etc to give everybody a discount or write-off for non-playing hours/ days? Sorry to wake up everyone who thinks sports should be just about the players, just everyone thinks journalism should be just about the news/ facts-- that is not the case, sports (& journalism) needs to be funded and so will be "directed" by their funding; and badminton is not exactly the biggest or cheapest sports around...(that would be Table-Tennis where world championship live coverage begins from round of 128 for 8 tables because the games are much shorter)
We could bring back the old days format when 9 matches used to decide the Thomas Cup! Actually I would quite like 7 match format. Quite exciting.
Sir, giving away your age. Yup, 9 matches in the old days over 2 days. But I think it was scrapped because China was too dominating in the singles discipline.
Right, there's a good chance that the Chinese team will field Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan in WD to face Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi. Here's the current Head to Head record: Or, Tang Jinhua/Bao Yixin with positive H2H 3-1 but their last encounter was in May 2014, lost miserably to Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi in Uber Cup, so little chance this pair will be fielded. STILL NO lineup info CHN vs JPN posted at web until this hour... think the info of "8-hour in advance" to submit player list is not accurate.
Ha ha ha what a Good Ol' Days... just like the lineup of Han Jian, Luan Jin, Chen Changjie plus two MD pairs dethroned Liem Swie King, Lius Pongoh, Rudy Hartono et al 5-4 in a two-day match in 1982 Thomas Cup, a successful debut for the Chinese team. I think the rather aging Rudy Hartono was already in semi-retired stage back then, but was pulled in to play due to lack of better player. The more matches in team competitions whether in SC/TC/UC, the winning odds of major badminton countries will even be higher, and China in particular will have its additional advantage for having the depth as witnessed repeatedly in the past. May be BWF needs to further reduce the number of matches into just three (best of two) to have a wider distribution of winners as well as simpler orginizing for the host... more equality!! Does not it sound great? Ha ha ha
THA XD takes the G1 21-16 Will Thai team make the breakthrough reaching the SC FINAL for the very first time? I think this is its very moment! Thai team will be in better position if WS is played in the 2nd order i/o MS
THA 1 - 0 KOR Dechapol PUAVARANUKROH/Sapsiree TAERATTANACHAI bt CHOI Solgyu/CHAE Yoo Jung 21-16, 21-12