After the London Olympics 2012 I’ve examined LD and LCW’s matches (*) from 2005 to 2012, approximately into 2 Olympics periods, Beijing 2005-2008 and London 2009-2012. The tables below show the winning percentage of their matches and split into 2 and 3 sets matches as well. After the Beijing Olympics both players altered their playing styles, notably LD with less explosive and more control play and LCW with more attacks. Both have increased their winning percentages considerably, LD from 75 to 92% and LCW from 53 to 72%. [TABLE] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: grid"] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD]No of[/TD] [TD="colspan: 3"]Winning %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2005 - 2008[/TD] [TD]matches[/TD] [TD]OverAll[/TD] [TD]2 sets[/TD] [TD]3 sets[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LIN Dan[/TD] [TD="align: right"]48[/TD] [TD="align: right"]75.0%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]79.3%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]68.4%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LEE Chong Wei[/TD] [TD="align: right"]38[/TD] [TD="align: right"]52.6%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]54.2%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]50.0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD]No of[/TD] [TD="colspan: 3"]Winning %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2009 - 2012[/TD] [TD]matches[/TD] [TD]OverAll[/TD] [TD]2 sets[/TD] [TD]3 sets[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LIN Dan[/TD] [TD="align: right"]72[/TD] [TD="align: right"]91.7%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]92.2%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]90.5%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LEE Chong Wei[/TD] [TD="align: right"]57[/TD] [TD="align: right"]70.2%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]83.3%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]47.6%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD]No of[/TD] [TD="colspan: 3"]Winning %[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2005 - 2012[/TD] [TD]matches[/TD] [TD]OverAll[/TD] [TD]2 sets[/TD] [TD]3 sets[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LIN Dan[/TD] [TD="align: right"]120[/TD] [TD="align: right"]85.0%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]87.5%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]80.0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]LEE Chong Wei[/TD] [TD="align: right"]95[/TD] [TD="align: right"]63.2%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]71.7%[/TD] [TD="align: right"]48.6%[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Significantly, LCW’s 3 sets winning ratio lingering at around 50%, in fact it dropped down below 50% after Beijing, compare with LD’s 90% from the previous 80%. From the figures it dose suggests that the 3 setters is more favourable to LD than LCW. That can be contributed to stamina; mental strength etc but their playing styles can also be playing a part. When the going get tough especially in the rubber game LCW always relies on his good court coverage and try to keep the rallies going (defence mode) and hope for the best (errors from his opponent). Few commentators, Morten Frost among them commented that LCW doesn’t win too many easy points, always has to work hard for his points/games, that’s probably why he always looks exhausted in the rubber. As we are moving on to the next 4 years Olympics period I can see both LD and LCW’s stamina going downhill with “old age” catching up with them. LCW has to improve his attacks even further and aim to finish his matches in 2, or else. I’ve also looked into the 3 setters for the others in the current top 10 plus TH as well, as you can see LCW is among the worst (ignoring the players lower down with a small sample size); even TH has a better percentage! [TABLE="class: grid"] [TR] [TD][TABLE] [TR="class: grid"] [TD][/TD] [TD]No of[/TD] [TD]Winning %[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]2009 - 2012[/TD] [TD]matches[/TD] [TD]3 sets[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]LIN Dan[/TD] [TD="align: right"]21[/TD] [TD="align: right"]90.5%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]LEE Chong Wei[/TD] [TD="align: right"]21[/TD] [TD="align: right"]47.6%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]CHEN Long[/TD] [TD="align: right"]13[/TD] [TD="align: right"]46.2%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]CHEN Jin[/TD] [TD="align: right"]16[/TD] [TD="align: right"]62.5%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]Peter Hoeg GADE[/TD] [TD="align: right"]11[/TD] [TD="align: right"]63.6%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]Simon SANTOSO[/TD] [TD="align: right"]6[/TD] [TD="align: right"]0.0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]Sho SASAKI[/TD] [TD="align: right"]3[/TD] [TD="align: right"]33.3%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]LEE Hyun Il[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]0.0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]Kenichi TAGO[/TD] [TD="align: right"]3[/TD] [TD="align: right"]33.3%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]DU Pengyu[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]0.0%[/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: grid"] [TD]Taufik Hidayat[/TD] [TD="align: right"]4[/TD] [TD="align: right"]50.0%[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Feel free to chip in. (*) - They are not but most all of their matches in the database that I’m maintaining, the full file is in http://www.mediafire.com/view/?bz5kz2hoc55u9x0 , if interested (the main database is in sheet ‘DB’, select any player in Columns G or K and hit the ‘Search Database’ button will bring out all the records for that player, together with the filters on Row 5 you can do all kinds of analyses).
If you look at LCW's match history in the finals (out of the 65 times he's been in the finals in his career), from 2009 on in 3-setters, he's took LD 6 times to 3 sets with a record of 2-4 in those 3 setters. 2-1 vs Peter Gade (remember 3 sets only). So to say that LCW has an inferior percentage would be true, but if you take into account LD contributed to at least 6 (I don't know the match history outside of their meetings in finals) and LCW is a meagre 33% of 3 setters out of those 6 matches that went into 3 sets, it skews the numbers quite a bit.
Those are the matches on the TV court that i've on DVD/Videos. Mainly on SS t'ments or above at the later stages as well.