..okay, first bit of news to share.. 1. As i'm typing this, the Qualification Rd. is about to wrap up shortly in about 2 hrs..Part of 1st Rd. will start at 5 pm today and will continue tomorrow..Saw a couple other pretty competitive Qualification Rd. matches.. 2. As you all know Chen Jin has withdrawn from the tourney..But as far as i know, he's the only "big name" who has withdrawn.. 3. Another news from Qualification Rd., Li Gen, the son of Li Yongbo lost in straight games in his XD match against a pair from Australia.. ..The usual lackadaisical playing attitude, fooling around on court.. 4. Also, just to catch everyone by surprise, we had a brief power outage! Right when they were playing..Thankfully no one got hurt or got smacked by a shuttle or racket!..Welcome to Southern California for those players visiting here for the first time!..I was about to log in BC and zap, the power went out.. 5. This yr's Qualification Rd. only uses 4 courts instead of 6 courts like last yr's edition.. Let's see what else to share: Saw Karyn Velez Saw Claudia Rivero Saw Kang Ji Wook Saw Reiko Shiota & the entire JPN squad Saw Li Gen & the CHN juniors Saw the CHN TPE squad minus Tai Tzu Ying (i don't know where she is, probably too busy at Disneyland) Saw Wang Chen (coaching now) Did not see Bao Chunlai Did not see Taufik Did not see Boonsak P. Did not see Lee Yongdae (maybe out on a date??) Did not see Ratchanok Inthanon ..alright, that's all to share for now..stay tuned for more..
..just had a 2nd power outage~apparently caused from the power company...hope this is not a sign of what's to come for the rest of the week..
interesting to see Tien Chen Chou/Shao Chieh Cheng playing together in MX. They won their 1st qualification match quite easily against the Egyptians. Let's see how they do against Ji Wook Kang and his partner.
Day 1 recap.. ..well, other than then power outages in the afternoon (which caused about 30 min. delay), there weren't really much surprises in terms of the matches.. A few other interesting notes: 1. For some reason the chants of of "Allez Brice Allez" were missing..or maybe his supporters haven't shown up yet..On his match, Brice started slow but revved up in the 2nd game and cruised all the way in the 3rd.. 2. The XD match between Chou TC & Cheng vs. Ji Wook Kang & Kyung Eun Jung was probably the most entertaining one of the day.. 3. The MS match between Wing KW vs. Tian Houwei was probably the most exciting singles match of the day. Wing KW showed some iron defense in rallying and eventually denying Tian Houwei a win. And after the match was over, the crowd gave a rousing applause to Wing KW. *Tian Houwei does mimic LD's body language and style.. 4. U.S. MS fave, Lee Hock Lai had to yield to Takuma Ueda as Hock Lai was hampered by a knee injury; his court movements were definitely limited. 5. Another crowd fave, Sattawat P., brought out the "Sattawat! Sattawat!" chants, but Mr. Baxter wouldn't be denied and charged up to win the last 2 games.. 6. A lot of youngster in the fray. But most of them were eliminated early.. 7. Crowd turnout was decent, esp. for a 1st Day event..
David Pohan has a fever so that means they will forfeit the match to towboss (Toby Ng) and his partner.
I saw Sattawat play in November last year, and honestly wasn't too impressed, hopefully he has improved since then...
Oh yes something big happened. Her on court attitude towards her opponents in one match was very disrespectful, and embarrising. Showed no respect to her opponents, and was very disrespectful. Just expected to turn up and her opponents to be rubbish, then sort of took the p**s on court and like I said showed little respect. Thinking her opponents would be no match. Disapponting...
Well, she has high aspirations. A cardiothoracic surgeon. Lol, you're managing to catch all these matches. YOG and the Commonwealth Games. Are they in HD?
This particular match was on TV, and being commentated on by Gail Emms who kept on calling her behaviour unacceptable, so basically it painted a bad picture for badminton and Canada. Got to see tons of matches of Commonwealth games, and some of the YOG ones, although not as many..
Wow, strong remarks from Gail. Good thing it wasn't Charmaine Reid commenting that day, otherwise she would have been in a tight spot. The Japanese players are having a rough day, with Eto/Yu getting knocked out and Kenta/Ayaka losing by a whisker. Nozomi's up next week