It was quite surprising that Tony Gunawan went into the Men's Single final beating Mike Beres in the semis. i never knew Tony G played singles that good. I wonder if he competed in the MD because he wasn't in the finals. Was anyone there to watch the tounament?
yeah, like did he jump smash his way to victory Just kiddding. Not too many specialist can do well in both single and doubles (MD & XD).
i believe peter gade is one of those specialist..lol...i remember once some commentor mentioned that he was also an doubles specialist
wow, really? So was Cheah Soon Kit, until his coach ask him to try MD. I think i see a trend here, some MS experience makes top notch MD player. I think learning MS is a must if one want to grasp the fundamental of badminton. MD require skills too but i think MS single should form the foundation.
i think i read in one of the articles here in bf, that most players in the china (?) system begin with singles first when they are young and then stay singles for their career, or pick XD or MD. will try to reference if i find it again.
I think I saw on Peter Gade's website that he had won junior doubles titles. Don't quote me on it tho!
Boston Open I was at the Boston Open - Tony Gunawan didn't play men's doubles - only singles and mixed. he made it to singles finals because he's a very high caliber player. The other seeds are very good, but Tony has a great deal of international experience. The men's doubles final was excellent to watch though - Andy Chong and Chibing Wu played against Mike Beres and Kyle Hunter of Canada - 3 fantastic games. i will have the DVD soon... gregory
i think it is gracious for Tony to participate only in MS and XD because i know for sure if he pair up with any decent partner they can take the MD hands down. I think what he did was good for badminton in north america because it give another MD team a chance to experience playing the final. If Tony make it to the MS final, then he must be keeping fit too while staying in the US. Ardy Wiranata, a MS medalist, didn't play MS in the last Canadian Open but he did played MS and MD in a community tournament held in a small town just outside my city.
I think any national junior team would select mostly on the basis of singles in the early years. Coaching of the basics tends to revolve around singles and at under 13 level doubles is very similar to singles (get away with drops and clears, front player has little involvement, no power in smashing). So any top player is likely to have played / been coached singles for several years. As players develop they specialise, many of the asian doubles players have played singles to a high level even senior international, in europe it is common to only play doubles from a much younger age perhaps. I am not surprised TG made final in that standard of singles event, his speed/power and shot quality would be world class and against even dedicated singles players who are not quite world class this prevails.
need clarification I don't understand, so did Tony G. loss the finals and got second place? or did he WON the tournament as well? no one seem to have made this point clearly. thanks if he lost, who beat him in the finals?
So he lost to Jimmy Pohan. Look like Jimmy Pohan is the #1 ranked player in US. Kevin Han is #5, Tony Gunawan is #10. No wonder he can beat Tony. http://www.usabadminton.org/USAB_rankings-MS.html
The US national rankings can be deceptive. Not everybody plays all the tournaments, and they all generate different points. Often the elite players aren't able to play national tournaments because they are competing overseas. Kevin Han should probably be higher than #5 but he's not. Was he injured at one point this year? About Tony Gunawan playing men's singles, there are two points I'd like to add. First of all, Tony G. is widely considered to have been one of the best men's doubles players in the world at one point in time, and he is still dangerous. I don't think you can say the same thing of Mike Beres. If Tony G. had beaten Peter Gade for example, I would be surprised, but Mike Beres is not in the same category as Tony G. Secondly, Tony is known for being an intelligent, thinking player. That style is also certain to benefit him in the singles game.
coupii, why are you talking about mike beres? I don't think we have compared mike beres to tony G. Also, jimmy pohan played 7 tournaments while kevin H, howard Bach and Tony G. only played 3 tournaments each.
tony gunawan and mike beres were in our discussion together because they competed against eachother in the Boston Open (see subject: Tony G. in Boston Open) g
Well... i'm not sure exactly what the original author of this thread intended to say - i personally wasn't surprised to see Tony Gunawan beat Mike Beres - but I also wasn't surprised that Mike lead during the match, because he is a very good singles player. He makes hardly any errors, and he covers the court very well. hope that clears things up a little. g
Sweet, Mike Beres is going to be at a camp I'm going to. I'll finally be able to learn from a player who has seen international competition. Phil
