Starting this thread for the Polish Open. Seems like the Chinese who dominated the French Open are here in this tournament. Well in the first round, all the Chinese who played, predictably thrashed their opponents. Today (Friday) is last 16 day (also last 32 for singles). Tommorow, the quarters and the semis will be played. The notable players in the draw are (I'm including all the Chinese here, don't recognise all of them but their nationality is very notable): MS (hypothetical last 8s) ----- 1st quarter Yamada (Jpn) 1st seed OEDUM Kasper (Den) (last 16 with Yamada) Chen Jin (last 8 with Yamada or Oedum) ----- 2nd quarter Chien Yu-Hsiu (Tpe) 3/4 seed Luo Yigang (isn't he quite old already?) ----- 3rd quarter Gong Weijie Bobby Milroy (Can) 3/4 seed - if he can advance ----- 4th quarter PERSSON Joachim (Den) WACHA Przemyslaw (Pol) 2nd seed WS (hypothetical last 8s) ----- 1st quarter Salakjit Ponsana (Tha) 1st seed Chen Lanting ----- 2nd quarter Denyse Julien (Can) (last 8 with Li Li or Lu Lan) Li Li (Sin) Lu Lan (could face Li Li in last 16) ----- 3rd quarter Liu Jian don't recognise the rest ----- 4th quarter Zhu Lin Huang Chia-Chi (Tpe) (face Zhu in last 16) Jiang Yanmei (Sin) (face Rice in last 16) Anna Rice (Can) 2nd seed Seems like all the Chinese are put in seperate quarters MD ----- 1st half LOGOSZ Michal/MATEUSIAK Robert (Pol) 1st seed Sun Junjie/Xu Chen (to meet in semis) ----- 2nd half Guo Zhendong/Xie Zhongbo don't know the rest WD ----- 1st half AGUSTYN Kamila/KOSTIUCZYK Nadiezda (Pol) 1st seed (lost narrowly to Feng/Pan in French Open) Feng Chen/Pan Pan (to meet in semis) ----- 2nd half POLSANA Salakjit/MEEMEK Monthila (Tha) could go to semis Du Jing/Yu Yang Julien/Rice (Can) 2nd seeds to meet Du/Yu in last 8 XD ----- 1st half Sun Junjie/Pan Pan ZUEV Nikolaj/YAKUSHEVA Marina (Rus) runner-up of French Open Xu Chen/Feng Chen (meet Russians in last 16) ----- 2nd half Xie Zhongbo/Yu Yang Guo Zhendong/Du Jing (could meet in the semis) Seems like second string from Chinese powerhouse vs the best of the rest. Honestly, I hope that the rest can give some fight, or it would be boring. Like M Schu winning all the races. But the draw is good for the Chinese, as they are all scattered around.
MS : Chen Jin should win WS : Chen Lanting MD : Logosz/Mateusiak WD : Augustin/Kostiuczyk? (they are capable of beating both chinese pairs) XD : Xie/Yu conclusion : China should take 3 or 4 titles. The only title which will normally NOT go to China is MD. Nothing new!
MS Quarter finals line-up Kasper Oedum (DEN) vs Chen Jin (CHN) Stanislav Pukhov (RUS) vs Luo Yigang (CHN) Gong Weijie (CHN) vs Bobby Milroy (CAN) Martin Hagberg (SWE) vs Przemyslaw Wacha (POL)
WS quarter finals line-up Salakjit Ponsana (THA) vs Chen Lanting (CHN) Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN) vs Lu Lan (CHN) Monthila Meemek (THA) vs Liu Jian (CHN) Zhu Lin (CHN) vs Jiang Yanmei (SIN)
So, Luo Yigang is still playing for China, but just not on the national squad? Has he found a European club to play for, as his agent was on the forum a while ago posting his resume? In MS, Chen Jin vs Luo Yigang (most probably) in semis will be a very interesting and tight match. Luo was a very good player and former world top 3 ranker in his prime and has advantage in his vast experience. I think this may go to 3 sets..... It's definitely great to have all of China's young guns gaining experience in these smaller tournaments, so they will be prepared to replace the current breed of CHN shuttlers in few years time.
holy somkes... didn't know Luo YIgang was still around and playing! Haven't seen him around for years! I doubt he still has what it takes to go past China's new generation of winning machines llike Chen Jin etc...
Luo is the coach of Chinese Junior team now. He played in poland just for fun i guess chen jin will meet gong weijie in the final and win another title
china won 4 champion and UKR won the mixdoubles.is there good player in UKR? maybe! Finals 9.00 - 28th March 2004 Men's singles Jin CHEN (CHN) - Przemyslaw WACHA (POL) Jin CHEN won his second title 15/6, 15/9 Men's doubles Michal LOGOSZ & Robert MATEUSIAK (POL) - Zhengdong GUO & Zhongbo XIE (CHN) 15/8, 14/17, 14/17 Mixed doubles Junjie SUN & Pan PAN (CHN) - Vladislav DRUZCHENKO & Elena NOZDRAN (UKR) 11/15, 7/15 Women's singles Lan LU (CHN) - Lin ZHU (CHN) 11/7, 11/2 Women's doubles Chen FENG & Pan PAN (CHN) - Jing DU & Yang YU (CHN) 5/15, 6/15
Yes, there are pretty good players in Ukraine, but they don't have much money to travel, so they are very badly placed in the world rankings... For ex, the 2003 WS U19 european champion (in front of Danes, Germans, English...), Larisa Griga, is a Ukrainian. And Elena Nozdran, winner in MX at Polish Open, used to be in the top 20 in WS before being pregnant last year.
Some interesting things I was at the Polish Open and I can tell you some "memories of ...". The team of China really dominated in the event taking four out of five titles. In the MD it was a very close match with Polish Łogosz/Mateusiak, Chinese finally won 17/14 in the third set. The LS and LD was all Chinese affair. The semifinals saw a great atmosphere, lot of spectators (about 1000 – a lot in light of popularity of badminton in Poland) and also spectators cheering for China – workers and their families from China embassy. Really the best atmosphere I have ever seen at the badminton tournament in Poland. It is truth what Seven said about the Ukrainians. They were the best MX pair in the tournament, winning relatively easy with three out of four Chinese pairs that entered Polish Open in MX. It is also truth that Luo Yigang was playing for fun (he used to look like), he was always smiled and was enjoying himself on court very much. He lost in the q/f to the Russian Stanislav Pukhov, who played excellent and won after a tough third game. I heard that he is now playing in Denmark and he is not with Chinese team. It should be truth, because I was going back from the tournament the same bus with all the Chinese team and Luo Yigang was not there. Probably he returned to Denmark earlier. The player who amazed me the most was of course Chen Jin. He outplayed the former winner of Polish Open – Danish Kasper Oedum, in the way that Kasper in the last rallies simply surrendered. He also outplayed all other opponents, including Wacha in the final. The amazing thing on the finals day was that in Poland (and all over the Europe) in the night from Saturday to Sunday there was a time change. The Chinese team was not aware of that and Chen Jin was taken from the restaurant where he was having his breakfast at 9.10 am (the final was scheduled to start at 9). Chen Jin had only few minutes to worm up, but anyway it was enough to get a quick lead over Wacha and win easily. This year Polish Open was a really good tournament in comparison to the last years. Maybe not so good when players like Tony Gunawan, Candra Wijaya, Ricky Subaya, Rexy Mainaky or Lars Paaske were on the list, but anyway a lot of good badminton. regards dzgdz
Dzgdz, can you tell us more about badminton in Poland? i see that badminton must be quite popular there as there is the Polish Open as there is also a MD pair in the two 20 world ranking from Poland. Poland is far away from most of us that we know very little about it.
Just to add: Druzchenko was the winner of the MS at the German Open two or three years ago. The same year Elena Nozdran was runner-up in the WS at the German Open. Bye Toastie
badminton in Poland Kwun, your wish is an order for me... Badminton in Poland – dzgdz’s perspective For the beginning I would like to remind you that Poland is a country in the center of Europe and in one month time we are joining the EU. You cannot say that badminton in Poland is a popular game. I am playing/organizing/officiating for 13 years and every time when I say to someone that I am playing badminton, I heard the sounds of surprise. It is the good way to explain what the Badminton is in Poland – it is a sport that is far, far behind the interest of people preferring football, volleyball, ski jumping and speedway. But anyway badminton in Poland is rising all the time. Poland was present in Barcelona (6 players), Atlanta (1) and Sydney (3). It is said that modern badminton in Poland started when Chinese coach ZHOU JUN LING came in the early 90’s and started to work with the national team (as far as I know, ZHOU JUN LING is now working for Wales). The biggest success and catching up the European and world badminton came a few years ago. Michał Łogosz and Robert Mateusiak won bronze during European championships four years ago and they did the same thing two years ago (lets hope they will perform at least so good in the two weeks time, when EC starts in Geneve). Also Przemyslaw Wacha started to win some A graded tournaments and to trouble European and even Asian players. He was in the top form two years ago during the EC, when he stressed Peter Rassmusen to five games in the q/f. Considering that PR won the tournament, Wacha should have been playing very well that time. We also have very good LD pair. It is Kamila Augustyn and Nadiezda Kostiouczik. Nadiezda is originally from Bielarus, she grow up and was taught badminton there, but she was playing badminton in Poland since she was 13. Now with Kamila they are very strong pair (they won easily European Junior Championships in 2001), capable to beat any pair in the world (maybe with an exception of top Chinese and Korean pairs). In Poland there are some badminton sport schools that train children and they do a very good job. We have many good juniors year by year and they even have successes among European tournaments. The problem is that very few of these talented players are transferred into seniors capable to catch up the world top players. It is difficult for pros in Poland to live of badminton only. I know that some of them play also in the German league and it is important part of money they earn. This and previous year, having the OG qualification in stake, it is great to hear that our top players (MS, MD and WD) travel around the world, play and spare during international tournaments and (sometimes) win. In February, during T/C Cup preliminaries (which in fact is European Men and Woman teams Championships) Poland finished as fourth, stressing England in battle for the ticket to Jakarta. It was amazing to se Polish guy winning with England National Champion. Unfortunately our best MD pair wasn’t up to expectations and lose, but anyway it was great to see our boys to be so close. About Polish Open. This year it was the eight consecutive tournament for me (in one year there was no PO but European Junior Championships). It used to be a one-star tournament, well placed in the calendar, close to All England. At that time many top Asian and European players were entering the tournament. Now association is unable to find enough money to support a tournament higher ranked than “A”. Therefore to summarize my answers to Kwun’s questions: - Badminton in Poland is not popular although we have bigger successes than in other, more popular and televised sports, - Polish Open is a really nice tournament (see some photos of the hall), - We (badminton supporters) are very proud that of our players who perform increasingly well in the world circuit. If any questions about badminton in Poland or whatever, I will be happy to answer. regards , dzgdz
Thanks for your description of badminton's situation in Poland. I agree that Kamila Augustyn and Nadiezda Kostiuczik form a very good ladies doubles pair. I saw them play in Volant d'Or this year and I was really impressed!