How do best women players fare against men?

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by jajvirta, Dec 15, 2012.

  1. jajvirta

    jajvirta Regular Member

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    (I tried to search the archives but to no avail.)

    How would the top women singles players fare against men? That is, how would the top women rank world wide if they were playing in the men's division?

    I hope this doesn't come off as sexist or anything. I'm just curious as I don't have any idea how to estimate it. Top women do smash pretty hard (way over 200km/h) so I would guess they aren't that far off, but I would be interested to know where they would stand if they played competitionally against men.
     
  2. Tactim

    Tactim Regular Member

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    Pretty hard to say because ultimately it's hard to answer without coming off as sexist. To be honest I would say speed of smashes is not the separating factor between the men's and women's game, it's the speed at which the players move at. The men's singles movement is a much higher pace. Sure the men smash harder but in singles it's much more about placement than power which I feel can't be separated by gender but the quality of the player.That being said, the top women players could probably beat some of the lower ranked men's players provided they aren't from any of the top Asian or European countries. But the play style of the two disciplines is so different that its hard to say.
     
  3. LD rules!

    LD rules! Regular Member

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  4. demolidor

    demolidor Regular Member

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    There is a topic already (of course ;), several even) where the OP claimed they couldn't be in the top 1000 to which I countered the quality of men after top 3-400 isn't much to write home about already, etc. etc. You really have to see them play live to see how good they really are before you can make a judgment (had the fortune of seeing Mia Audina and Yao Jie regularly for instance).
    But the world ranking is based on "do you have money to participate in tournaments" as much as it is about quality. I mean there are so many players from the big nations who don't or hardly get the chance to collect points for the wr list. Getting to #500 you still see some players you feel should be ranked much higher mixed with others you have never heard of and should be beatable by the top women.
    Taking country of origin into the equation they probably wouldn't be in the national team to begin with and thus might not even be ranked ;)
     
  5. Tactim

    Tactim Regular Member

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    Hard to really judge from that video, but perhaps I underestimated the importance of smash power in the match up. It really seemed like a smash fest for the male player in that video, didn't really see WYH get the attack once. Since it is an exhibition perhaps she didn't really put much effort, hard to tell.

    Either the male player's smash is exceptionally good or a combination of the shuttle speed and hall is incredibly fast. If you see the smash at 5:57 where he smashes pretty much from the very back line, the shuttle practically hit her right arm pit before she had time to react. It looked like a 280+ kph smash for the speed that shuttle was going.

    Lastly, as I pointed out in my post, WYH or any of the top female players probably wouldn't fair much chance against male players from the top Asian and European countries. Since the player was Chinese, I expected this result as much.
     
    #5 Tactim, Dec 15, 2012
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2012
  6. vixter

    vixter Regular Member

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    Well that guy was no scrub, the chinese university champion. Max effort or not from WYH, she was chanceless against him. His smash power is something she never faces in WS. Interesting matchup but not an even one.
     
  7. BaggedCat

    BaggedCat Regular Member

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    It's not just the smash power. She face shots that she would not have expected if playing against another woman. How many women usually go from recovering a short net shot to a running, leaping jump smashing the return lob clear. I think thats the main difference between men and womens games, the men are more explosive in speed, power and endurance. Technical ability im sure men and women could reach the same levels.
     
  8. Jens83

    Jens83 Regular Member

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  9. BaggedCat

    BaggedCat Regular Member

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    that comma? is that 0.1% so she would win 1 in a 1000 games? i dont think she would even do that unless he was messing around. she couldnt 1.out power him, nor 2.have fast enough shots to out position him, that leaves the only way she could play against him 3.out stamina him so she might get to do 1. or 2. and thats not going to happen.
     
  10. Jens83

    Jens83 Regular Member

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    Thousand games is a pretty long run. Unbelievable things happen. Grippal infections, injuries, etc.
    On the other side, Lin Dan is very stable and was never beat by lower-ranked players (out of top-20) on the big tournaments.
     
  11. BaggedCat

    BaggedCat Regular Member

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    lol. i wasnt considering unexpected events. if i injected him with flu and snapped his ankle i reckon i could just about beat him.
     
  12. Sevex

    Sevex Regular Member

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    To try and give some idea, some of the top women's singles players in admittedly the UK can be quite easily overcome by a competent higher ranked county player.

    The women's player has to be very clever to beat them and make next to no mistakes. The man usually outspeeds and outpowers the female player. Although if the man/ men gets impatient against a women's player with reasonable defense and assumes he should win because he is a man then things get quite interesting and the man/ male pair usually beat themselves.

    Some of my friends played an England women's under 19 player and a veteran player recently at doubles. My friends are just below my standard, OK local league standard in the UK, so nothing special. They were obliterated by the England player much to my amusement as they can were being quite cocky and saying they wouldn't lose to a girl. It is amazing how many errors in your game are shown up by playing someone of that standard!
     

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