Who would win? Lee Chong Wei or Xia Xuanze

From the matches Xia played LD and LCW play LD, LCW have more shots. LCW win.

 

Seems that LCW considered far better player when comparing each in their prime.
Next question should be, will LCW ever be as good a coach as XXZ?

 

With a pupil in Lin Dan, XXZ job as coach is made a lot easier. Same for Rashid Sidek with LCW as pupil, LCW wins games for RS. A better comparison should LCW goes into coaching would be who can take a new comrade or new recruit and groom into a world or Olympic champion. Also, you may want to review past videos and check out how often LD is even listening to XXZ during breaks in the game against LCW. If Tang is coaching Lin Dan, LD would pay attention, not to XXZ.

 

i hope nobody going to start a who would win? LCW or Zhao Jian Hua thread.

Nobody, nobody would beat ZJH as his best. Not even Lin Dan.

 

Two thumbs up, 100% agree with you, Zhao Jian Hua is the best, he's the forever "God Of Badminton"

 

LD-ZJH, this is a really tough one, 2 players I rank the best all time. But who is better? 1990AE, ZJH perhaps played his best game and the most captivating badminton game I have ever seen anyone play. LD in 2008 OLY, perhaps LD best game I would say, flawless despite the huge pressure playing in CHN 1st OLY. If both LD and ZJH are at their best and play each other, I am screwed who I would bet. As for LCW to ZJH, that is not even a bet, forget it, I better save my buck and go buy a loto.

 

Zhao Jianhua or Lin Dan ? They are, to me , two of a kind, very little separates the two - they are in a class of their own.

For ZJH, if not for his contracting pneumonia at a young age of 20 which impaired his lung capacity,unfortunately, Heaven knows how many titles he would have won, how dominant or great he might have been - and I would even rate him slightly higher than Lin Dan to be the Greatest of All Time.

As it is we or I , speaking for myself, would never know but , based on accolades and results alone, I've to admit Lin Dan as No.1 with Zhao Jianhua a close second, well ahead of the rest.

 

I've always been a big fan of ZJH, in fact he was my only "idiol" growing up. There was nobody that could really compare with him when he was at his best.

LD was never an idiol of mine, and although I admire his abilities, I would never consider myself a fan of LD. However, with respect, I don’t think ZJH at his prime would beat LD at his prime.

ZJH was a genuine natural talent. A prodigy in his day, exceptional skill and hugely intelligent. But the game has changed. Standards are much higher now and more knowledge has been gained over the years. Training can be more focused with sports science and dietary understanding. As more countries play the sport, more money is invested into training facilities and coaching, equipment etc and naturally the sport becomes more competitive. More competitions and more participants.

Whilst in Zhao’s day, the tempo of the rallies were a little slower, perhaps due to racquet technology in part which didn’t allow high tension strings – it made badminton exciting to watch as there were longer rallies but the new scoring system also influenced this too.

ZJH had a beautiful technique, smooth, natural and efficient – probably the best I’ve seen. LD on the other hand has a more functional style. Not as pretty to look at, but effective. I’m not suggesting that ZJH would not have been better than LD had he been born in the same era as LD (that would be a different story), but given the poorer training, knowledge, resources, equipment, facilities, monetary factors that ZJH had in his time the standard of play, in my opinion at least, is not on par with the best of today. LD (although not easily) would definitely beat ZJH imo.

XXZ vs LCW? LCW.

 

Anyone in the current top ten (or even top twenty) would be able to beat these so called greats from yesteryear, even at their prime. Sports technology has evolved considerably in the last twenty years. It's a bit silly to even discuss this. One just has to look at the scrawny physique of most of these players from the past to know they wouldn't stand a chance against a buff Lin Dan or Chong Wei, who are ten times quicker and can probably outlast the rest by two or three sets. It's like comparing Djokovic or Nadal with McEnroe or Borg.

 

definetly go for lcw

 

I am the biggest Xia Xuan Ze fan, though I'd like to analyse this from a unbiased perspective. Since the 2 didn't have much of a overlapping competing era, I have to use some anchors for this comparison.

1) Overall Head to Head is 2-1 in XXZ's favor
2) The last LCW vs XXZ encounter that I know of went 15-0 in LCW's way in the 2nd game. Soon after XXZ retired. At the time, LCW was rising, XXZ was mature but declining.
3) XXZ's head to head vs LD is 4-5, losing all of his games after 2003. Again, XXZ was declining and LD started dominating post 2003
4) XXZ has 50-50 head to head vs TH and PG, both of whom competed well past their prime.

Roughly speaking, we know XXZ is just as good, if not better than TH and PG, or the young LCW, LD. From recently results, we also know that LCW and LD are better than TH and PG. Mature players destroying younger players is common, however, LCW and LD have dominated over almost 2 generations of young players (Chen Jin who's retired, and Chen Long who's already 25).

Purely from this partial analysis, LCW seems to have an edge over XXZ.

I am curious though how XXZ would have adapted to the 21 point system if he chose to compete longer like TH and PG did. He may not have done well since he's always been a very physical player, instead of a methodical one.

 

Yes Kwun , fight-on XXZ!

 

more than agree. You can never compare an old school player against the new era players.

 

i thought Yang Yang is better than ZJH?

 

this is so true!!

one should always judge a player in his era and how dominant he was there. if you compare players that played the game 20 or 30 years apart, the game has evolved so much, the ancient stars wouldn't have any chance against later top-players.