Anyone noticed that Gong Ruina has gone down to 17th position in this week's world ranking : http://www.worldbadminton.net/Portal/desktopmodules/ranking.asp?categorycode=WS Many people have said she wasn't really motivated anymore etc etc, but this is a really LOW ranking for her... (OK she only has 6 tournaments counting which doesn't help either but still!)
So looks like she won't be going to the WC 2005. Zhou Mi is also struggling at the moment, so who would China send for their WS?
Yes, true about the World Champs. China will only have 3 WS qualified : Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning and Zhou Mi.
Where are the new WS Chinese players?? In WD, at least we are seeing the 2nd generation pairs like Zhang Dan/Zhang Yawen and Du Jing/Yu Yang but not in WS.
Young chinese WS : Chen Li (40th), Chen Lanting (48th), Wang Rong (51st), Zhu Lin (61st), Lu Lan (64th), Jiang Yanjiao (68th) ... They would need to be in the top 8 in order to qualify for the world champs. Obviously this won't be the case...
Well the level gap is not so big as we saw in recent Japan Open, but the young generation will need to enter more events to get a chance of climbing in the rankings... (I should think having a good world ranking and qualifying for world champs is not their main target for the moment)
According to LYB, WS and MXD are facing the issues of "gap" between generations. The young girls surely have the skill, but seems still lack of experience to be the top.
I've been shocked too !!! if you notice, mia audina is 16th or 15th actually in the world, that's maybe their worst rankings for many years !!!