All the top seeds who were expecting to win or progress further in the competition are dropping like flies in the first round... Christina Pedersen (WD, XD), Lee Yong Dae, Li Xuerui, Du Pengyu, Wang Yihan just to name some...
This might become a controversial thread. From round 32, I have seen many tight 3 game matches and some of the 2 game matches are also very close. I think this year AE is great ! Upsets also makes it more interesting, otherwise it might become just another tournament where we see same sets players in the semi final or finals
I agree with sen comment exciting and we don't know yet who will be winner that's make sport like life, no calculation and no certainty if you prepare that's not guarantee you will succeed
Cai Yun/Fu and Lin Dan aren't even in it too. Now All England is SUPER EASY. All the hard people are gone.
I love these upsets and near upsets. The folks attending at the NIA were treated to an super exciting day.
hah! of course he/she feel dissapointed because his/her beloved china team player keep bowing out. different fans have different perception
when its comes to big one, anything can happen and will always happen . i enjoy this first round, the comments, the live streaming even the live score because is sooo unpredictable and every player has a big motivation "to guns down" the top player. even im no ready if may fav player going down :crying:
Just goes to show: you'd better stay on top of your game, or there are a LOT of VERY GOOD CHALLENGERS who will kick you off your (shaky) pedestal. The front-runners who fell, paid the price of overconfidence; or insufficient preparation; or arrogance; or ill health; or injury. The others just took advantage. The seeds who got through, did so because they were better prepared and ready for anything. This AE has suddenly become more exciting than before! But if you're just looking for same-old same-old, then yes, you're in for a disapppointment!
I have to say, this year's All England has been very surprising... All the top seeds, if not most of them, have struggled in the early rounds, most of them uncharacteristically losing to players we would never thought possible... We would always thought the seeded players would perform well, since All England is a prestigious title, and the players and coaches would take alot of time to prepare. But that's not the case for this year. Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan, Du Pengyu are expected to sail to the quarter, semi or even finals but were beaten to unseeded players in the first round... Wang Shixian even almost losing to a Spanish player? Hong Wei and Shen Ye lost to Polish players... Chen Long had a tight 3 setter with Boonsak... Ko Sung Hyun / Lee Yong Dae performing quite badly, they lost to Germans in first round. I have never recalled Lee Yong Dae losing to any European pair besides Boe / Mogensen for least the past 2 years... Joachim Fischer / Christina Pedersen loses to Kido / Zebadiah... Lee Chong Wei only narrowly won Wong Wing Ki in 3 set deuce 23-21... All in all, this could be a good thing for badminton. It shows that its everyones game and gives lower ranks hope to climb up on top and we'll be seeing more competitive games as the tournament progresses. Surprises like these only makes it more interesting to follow!