The draw as released through BWF website : http://www.bwfbadminton.org/file_download.aspx?id=323457&tid=1 Many interesting encounters from the very first round, no surprise since this is All England
My prediction for this year’s SF. MS; Lee Chong Wei Lee Hyun Il Chen Long Chen Jin WS; Wang Yihan Jiang Yanjiao Li Xuerui Wang Xin MD; Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng Ko Sung Hyun/Yoo Yeon Seong Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae WD; Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang (F) Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa Ha Jung Eun/Kim Min Jung Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei XD; Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei Nathan Robertson/Jenny Wallwork Jiaming Tao/Huan Xia Xu Chen/Ma Jin
Lin dan will only be in SF of all England and maybe win the title IF: CJ lost before reaching QF. Otherwise, CJ will be in the SF. Same also for Chen Long. He has the chance in the final if he didnot meet CJ in SF.
Bear in mind whoever wins the All England during the Olympic year will be jinxed. So i should not be too surprised to see upsets happening (intentionally) in the draw. China will probably focus on Chen Jin's qualification points rather than the championship itself. This tournament will be a good reflection of which player might turn out to be threat for the upcoming Olympics. My gut feeling tells me Taufik and Lin Dan might crash out in the early round. As for WS, seriously wtf... why is Saina Nehwal getting the easiest draw most of the time when she is 4 seeded ? She wouldnt have to face a difficult opponent until the semifinal while the Wangs have to face the trickier opponents and dark horses.
Noticed Bao Yixin is not playing WD, with Ma Jin replacing her to partner Zhong Qianxin. In XD, ZN/ZYL couldn't have had a worse draw, up against home faves and giant killers Adcock/Bankier
Yes i could the world champion crashing out again. Giving opportunities to other XD pairs the better chance of winning. Xu Chen-Majin will be more pleased than disappointed to learn their more superior pair had lost, no chance of succumbing to match-fixing. hehehe
looks like Koo/Tan face the real test to prove their back-in form as they will up against mighty Jung/Lee in quarterfinals... As Koo/Tan finally beaten Ko/Yoo last week, will they do the same thing as they last beaten Jung/Lee in WC 2010...
Looks like LCW will meet either Chen Jin or Lin Dan in the final but I think Chen Cin will make it to the final so we will see another walk over from Chinese player for the sake of Chen Jin . But LCW has a perfect chance to make it to the final in win it for the 3rd time
Maybe the Chinese knew if they win the all england this year, their chances of winning the Olympics will get jeopardised.The jinx pattern affecting Chinese players is soooo obvious...they probably try hard not to win it or take it less seriously...focusing on points rather than the titles.. List of Chinese AE champions who failed in OG Liu Jun (1992) - crashed out in Barcelona Xia Xuanze (2000) - bronze in Sydney Lin Dan (2004) - crashed out in Athens (wtf?!) Chen Jin (2008) - lost to Lin Dan in Beijing and managed a bronze (well) Gong Ruina (2004) - Athens Semifinalist Gao Ling/Huang Sui (2004) - Athens Silver Medalist Gao Ling/Zheng Bo (2008) - crashed out in Beijing Match fixing saw DuJing and YuYang advance to the final of the AE in 2008 to seal their qualification fate and got beaten soundly by Lee Hyojung and Lee Kyungwon, but eventually they won the gold in the same final encounter in Beijing (smart move i guess lol ) It does loook really disturbing because so far only one Chinese pair that was jinx-resistant and managed to win OG and AE at the same time in successive events. Gu Jun Ge Fei - 1996 and 2000 We are about to see Lin Dan leaving the tournament early for Chen Jin to fight for his place and Lee Chong Wei wins whatever he wants..
I like Bao YiXin.. Sadly she is partnering with He HB; not a great future in that partnership. ZN/ZYL is my favourite; hope they will recapture the All England title and win the OG..
Remember they only seed 8 players in the draw. In this quarter, WX (2) and JS (8) are the seeds. Throw in prominent players like TTY, Rat, Yippy and the 2 Koreans, this becomes the equivalent of the "Group of Death".
You really think so that Adcock/Bankier can take out ZN/ZYL. I say easy 2 straights for the later, and go on to win AE. Adcock/Bankier did well in WC and nothing much after that.
Just saying there this is probably not the pair they wanted to meet early on. Adcock/Bankier have beaten them before and with a rabid home crowd, who knows. BTW, I don't think LYB is stupid enough to allow ZN/ZYL to win the AE because of the AE-OG curse
If SN meets LXR at QF, that may be seem to be the easier QF for SN than the other 3, but LXR is no easy opponent, SN could lose.
Fair enough that ZN/ZYL is WR1 and to have Adcock/Bankier for 1st round opponent. Adcock/Bankier IMO is over rated, just that they did very well at WC. We shall see if they can even take 1 set from ZN/ZYL. You really think LYB care about curse. If that is so, then they should be no CHN winners at this AE being OLY year. My prediction: WD, XD, WS go to CHN. MD 50-50 if CY/FHF meet JSJ/LYD, if any other opponent will be CHN win AE MD. MS 50-50 if LD meets LCW, if LD out of MSF, and LCW in MSF then CHN 40 chance of winning, LCW 60.
Haiya, look at the smiley after my comment. Would have saved you the trouble of going through the analysis after.
Looks that way for WX, but first of, they are all good players. With WX losing more to her team mates than outsiders, I think WX should be happy as the other 2 Wangs and JYJ are in the top half smacking each other with only 1 left. Who knows what card LYB will play in the top half, at least WX knows there is no team order for her in her half and she just play all out and see what will happen. My prediction WX into final.