Does anyone know why the Koreans play so few tournaments? A look down the world ranking in doubles and mix-doubles will show Korean pairs with 2 or 3 tournaments within the last year. The play great - they win the all England and championships when they compete. The average on those few tournaments are like the top 1-2-3 in the world. But why dont they compete in more tournements?
To some degree, their sponsors will influence where the players appear. From the sponsor point of view, IBF tournaments, especially European ones, may actually be less important than national tournaments.
I don't know if you saw this - but otherwise you seem to bee right! Here's what Kim Dong Moon said at All England!!! "We don’t come to Europe very often because we have very important tournaments at home. They are more important to us and to our sponsors than international tournaments," said Kim Dong Moon
Actually Ha/Kim is a long-time favorite pair of mine, and I have asked the same question before and that's more or less the answer I got then. It's good to have the theory confirmed by an authority though! I can easily see what he means. Southeast Asia is a huge consumer market compared to Europe, in almost any field!
Heh, Korea's not in Southeast Asia... =P But yes, Kim and co. do participate in a lot of intra-national tournaments. If I'm not wrong, they can actually play one tournament every consecutive month during peak periods. I don't really know how the system operates in Korea. Apparently, they have stuff like inter-club games where you represent your club (most of the Korean national team plays for Samsung btw); inter-varsity games (this will affect only the younger players who are all college students) and goodness knows what else. I'm posting with a vengeance today. To hell with the exams. Adel ps.HOW MANY MORE MTHS TO THE SINGAPORE OPEN??????????
Duh! I should know better than to use the term "southeast Asia" in such a sloppy way! Sorry everybody, I hope I didn't insult anyone.
