Hi all, It seems to me, im not sure to others, that there is a curse on the mens singles world championship title. Hendrawan won the evn in 2001, and saw a huge slump in form until his retirement. Now, the new champion Xia Xuanze seems to be having a slump in form, and look at the results i havent really seen anything impressive. Infact, looking at the IBF website he only just beat a Phillipines male, scraping through 15/5 12/15 15/12. Surely a man who wins the world champs is capable of better, or perhaps there is a curse on this sought after title? What are your views? Matt
wow. really interestng observation. let's go back a few years and see what happened to them: 1993 - Joko - ? 1995 - Arbi - ? 1997 - Peter Rasmussen - injured 1999 - Sun Jun - injured 2001 - Hendrawan - retired - age 2003 - Xia Xuanze - injured PeterR and Sun Jun were both career stopping injuries. Peter managed to stage a comeback after many years, but will probably never get back to his top form. Hendrawan retired, and honesetly, that's more due to age than anything else. Xia now is injured after the Singapore Open. the injury isn't too severe as he is playing now, but it looks like the injury is definitely affecting his performance. only time will tell if Xia can defy the curse of the MS WC... i know Joko was still playing at least till 1996. when did Arbi retire any why?
It was in late April of Year 2000 when Arbi retired. I remember Arbi was seeded in the 2000 Japan Open and he was beaten by Ng Wei in the first round. His chance of qualifying for the Olympics have reduced dramatically after that loss, and I don't think he has played seriously since.
From what i know , the tournament is a testing ground on how far can he go. He himself said that at the present form , he can't guarantee that he can win the tournament. He is still recovering.
interesting. perhaps for a player to hit that level in singles their shelf life becomes dramatically reduced.
Arbi had a lot of problems with injuries. His last tournamnet win was in Singapore Open 1999. He tried to continue after that but faded away.
here is a similar (if not the same) explanation. for a player to be able to reach the level of a World Champion, they must spend many years of time training and competing. often by then, their body by then are already beaten up or aged such that their performance will reduce from that point on (or perhaps get a bit better then reduce). thus the curse/observation that Matt pointed out.
Joko played in TC 1998 as 3rd singles. He was in the twilight of his career then. Zhao Jian Hua faded out after 1991. But he had been on the scene since 1985. Yang Yang? 1985 Han Jian retired shortly after winning but he was already 30 yrs old at retirement. 1983 Icuk - could never reach those heady heights again.I think his best tournament was an AE final in 1986?