Does anybody knows who is/are the international player(s) that changed from single to double or from double to single ?
Peter Gade was a successful doubles player in his younger days. Rikke Olsen was a singles player in her youth, same for Mikael Søgaard (now retired from international play).
If i remember ra kyung min in 1996 she was 2nd in the world in women's single, lee kyung won too .. both of them were pretty good in single lool Martin luundgard hansen was also in the top 5 in men's single
Wong Choon Hann was a doubles player and Chinese coach Li yongbo was a singles player before switching.
I remember that Tjun Tjun, who dominated the men's doubles with Johan Wahjudi in the 70s, was also a gifted singles player.
Martin Lundgaard.. - who plays together with the other Danish "old-boy" Jens Eriksen... Martin used to be only a singles player.. and played all the tournaments also internationally.. did quite ok.. did not play doubles at all except in the Danish league where all players have to play both doubles and singles.. anyways.. he only took up doubles after becoming a father and after he stopped playing badminton full time.. he took up a part time job.. and started playing doubles.. It might not have been much of a surprise for himself, but it was for the rest of the Danish badminton community that he actually turned out to be such a sucessfull doubles player after a while..
maybe thats why the commentators keep saying that martin is very athletic and fit, and can keep his composure smash after smash got used to it in singles?
Apparently so until he accidently hurt his thumb. Other players - Liem Swee King, Park Joo Bong (doubles -> singles -> doubles!), Han Ai Ping, Li Ling Wei, Michael Kjeldsen I think Zhou Mi was an ex junior world doubles champion.
Good enough to be seeded 5/8 in the All England Men's singles one time! That period was around 1987-88. That's why his name is missing from the World Championships of those years for the men's doubles. It took him a little time to regain his form for men's doubles.
i remembered read the articles from sina...fu haifeng was a single player b4 enter china's second team....
Wat about Cai Yun? I read a post here somewhere that he was a singles player b4...had heart problems so had to switch to doubles!!?? Is it true?
years ago Indonesia badminton federation always change the single player to double when he was begining 'old' but now..i dont think so Liem Sie King, one of them
How come no1 mention about the korean ra kyung min and also lee kyung won were great women single players.....both of them were ranked in the top 10 in the year 1996-98 (if i am not mistaken)...check it out at IBF ranking history......... ra kyung min was korea no1 woman single after bang soo hyun retired...... she had beaten zhang ning twice and some other top players during that time....i think her highest ranking in woman single was no4 or 5........ wonder what will happen if she were to continue playing single from last time???? athens gold medalist?????