Men's singles 1* Lin Dan 15* Dicky Palyama - 2nd round Shon Seung Mo 5* Chen Hong 13* Bobby Milroy Favourite from 1st quarter: Lin Dan, relatively easy quarter 4* Taufik Hidayat 10* Kuan Beng Hong 6* Peter Gade - 2nd round Gong Weijie 16* Agus Hariyanto Favourite from 2nd quarter: Peter Gade (presumably Taufik is not motivated ) 12* Chen Yu - 2nd round Zhu Weilun or Park Sung Hwan 7* Lee Hyun Il 11* Sony Dwi Kuncoro 3* Bao Chunlai - 2nd round Simon Santoso Favourite from 3rd quarter: Bao, especially at home ground, but Sony and Lee can spoil his party. 9* Wong Choong Hann 8* Ng Wei 14* Chen Jin - 1st round Yohan Hadikusuma, 2nd round Xia Xuanze 2* Kenneth Jonassen - 2nd round Li Yu Favourite from 4th quarter: hmmm... Wong CH? Also, there are Chinese floaters around, always dangerous in the China Open.
Women's singles 1* Zhang Ning - 2nd round Jiang Yanjiao 6* Yao Jie - 1st round Seo Yoon Hee, 2nd round Chen Lanting Favourite from 1st quarter: Zhang, of course 3* Wang Chen - 2nd round Zhou Mi 8* Tracey Hallam - 2nd round Zhu Lin or Yu Hirayama Favourite from 2nd quarter: Wang Chen (dark horse Zhu Lin) 5* Xu Huaiwen - 1st round Lu Lan 4* Pi Hongyan Favourite from 3rd quarter: Pi Hongyan, hopefully after another classic against Xu 8* Mia Audina 2* Xie Xingfang Favourite from 4th quarter: Xie, to try to beat Zhang this time Once again, a lot of dangerous Chinese floaters around.
Men's doubles 1* Candra/Sigit - 2nd round Flandi/Eng or Wong/Chew 8* Lin/Fairuz - 2nd round Zheng Bo/Xu Chen Favourite from 1st quarter: Candra/Sigit (forget what happened in Hong Kong) 4* Paaske/Rasmussen 5* Fu/Cai Favourite from 2nd quarter: Fu/Cai (remember what happened in Hong Kong) 7* Kido/Setiawan - 1st round Laybourn/Steffensen 3* Luluk/Alven - 2nd round Clark/Blair or Choong/Lee Favourite from 3rd quarter: Choong/Lee or Kido/Setiawan, but close. 6* Boe/Mogensen - 2nd round Jung/Han (what happened to Lee Jae Jin?) 2* Eriksen/Lundgaard - 1st round Guo/Xie, 2nd round Tan/Ong Favourite from 4th quarter: Eriksen/Lundgaard (dark horses Guo/Xie and Boe/Mogensen)
Women's doubles What? 3 English seeds? 1* Yang/Zhang - 2nd round Du/Yu 5* Emms/Kellogg Favourite from 1st quarter: Yang/Zhang as usual 3* Lee/Lee - 2nd round Frier/Juhl 8* Hallam/Munt - 2nd round Chien/Cheng or Novita/Polii Favourite from 2nd quarter: Lee/Lee as usual 6* Wei/Zhao 4* Zhang/Zhang - 2nd round Schjoldager/Andersen Favourite from 3rd quarter: Zhang/Zhang (dark horse Wie/Zhao) 7* Tripp/Nicholas 2* Gao/Huang Favourite from 4th quarter: Gao/Huang
Mixed doubles 1* Widianto/Natsir 6* Laybourn/Juhl - 1st round Xu Chen/Yu Yang, 2nd round Zheng Bo/Zhao Tingting Favourite from 1st quarter: Widianto/Natsir 3* Zhang/Gao 5* Robertson/Emms Favourite from 2nd quarter: tough one, I go for Zhang/Gao slightly on home ground 7* Xie/Zhang 4* Eriksen/Schjoldager Favourite from 3rd quarter: Xie/Zhang on fire 8* Blair/Munt - 2nd round Anggun/Tetty 2* Lee/Lee Favourite from 4th quarter: Lee/Lee
lol - don't be so surpised but they do play a lot of tournaments.. funding has been better in GB for badminton this last few years so we can send more people to more tournaments.. to the benefit of the players
right, isnt taufik injured (it said so in yesterday's newspaper), then why is his name still appear on the list of players, or maybe his withdrawal isnt confirmed yet,,
i have cancled my flight to guangzhou for that. i guess they just don't want to spread this news, other wise a lot of people will do the same thing as i do. this tournament will be a lot less atractive without him
I think Korea wants to try out the new pairing of Jung Jae Sung with Han Sang Hoon. I saw Jung playing singles with Lee Hyun-Il in a practice match last Friday. He is indeed a very good player. Lee Jae Jin is perhaps too tired to compete in both men and mixed doubles (with tense competitions in both disciplines). On the other hand, the competition in women doubles is less competitive, with main oppositions coming only from China (and usually in the semi-final stage), which is why Korea could afford Lee Hyo Jung to play in women's doubles too. Korea needs to have one or two solid double players after Ha/Kim and Yoo/Lee retired last year. I thought they already have one in Jung/Lee, who rised pretty rapidly up the ranking tables in just 1 year, winning a couple of titles along the way and become one of most feared young doubles pair. Now, can Jung/Han repeat the same task?
I only saw in this forum, in one of the post related to HK Open, mentioning about Taufik has an injury and that he went back to Jakarta. And will miss the upcoming China Open Tournament. I myself couldn't find any other news sources mentioning about this, thus can't confirm. And if indeed Taufik's name is on the China Open draw, then either it hasn't been updated or he's not injured and will indeed join..hmmm.. We shall see in the next 24-48 hrs about this..
Kim Dong Moon had no problems playing both MD and XD, and anyway, I thought Lee Jae Jin is a better doubles player than Jung Jae Sung, so it would be a waste if he forgoes MD. But it is true that it is very competitive now. The number of pairs who can win the MD and XD event at any given time are a few-fold more now than five years ago (or maybe it's just my imagination).
okay,,,here are some infos: (from KOMPAS 11/06/05) Lius Pongoh : "The results from the others are so unexpected (other than WD he meant). We actually hoped that we could at least take home 2 titles from XD and MD, we also thought that taufik could win, but i heard some info that he got injured ('melepuh',,,,chris,,,wat is it in english?,,i cant find the right word) while playing"
I think 'melepuh' = blister. the same thing happened just before singapore open 2004 when he withdrawn last minute.
KDM was a class above tho, and he had great partners in Ra in XD and Ha in MD so possibly easier time than LJJ.
I would have to say you are right about that. At LJJ's age, Kim had already won an Olympic gold medal. I, too, was sad to see LJJ and JJS broken up, though. As far as I know, they had been together for a long time but they are very new on the international circuit. They didn't take it by storm as I expected they would, but I have no such hopes for the new pairing. I haven't seen anything explaining this. One strange thing is that the pairs who play internationally aren't the same as the ones that play together in domestic tournaments. One exception is Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwun. They played domestically together for Samsung Electronics and, of course, internationally for Korea. LJJ and JJS were both with Wonkwang University until last year (when they beat both Kim/Ha and Lee/Yoo) but this year they have been apart. JJS, despite being a year older, started university a year later than LJJ, for some reason and is now in fourth year. I don't know if that has anything to do with the separation, but it might have contributed to confusion with partnerships. LJJ had at least 3 partners this year including Lee Hyo-jung, Jung Jae-sung, and some guy named Kim Sung-gwan. Only this last was a member of Lee's domestic team which is based in Miryang, miles away from Iksan, where Jung is based, and Suwon, where Lee Hyo-jung is based. In terms of domestic training schedules, Kim Dong-moon was only separated from Ra as he and Ha shared a local team.