MS Lin Dan Vs Lee Hyun Il WS Zhang Ning Vs Xie Xing Fang MD Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah Vs Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard-Hansen WD Gao Ling/Huang Sui Vs Zhang Jie Wen/Yang Wei MXD Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms Vs Zhang Jun/Gao Ling Discuss
I cannot believe Lin Dan actually beat LCW, what an incredible 3rd set!! I hope he goes all the way and wins the MS championship!
LD to beat LHI if he recovers mentally as well as physically Robertson/Emms to win probably, they are on the up, while zhang/gao are not really improving as much i feel maylsians to win the MD
hmm. i was commentating for BF (see the semi final thread) on that match.. watching it live on sky.. dan was walking it.. until he was 8-2 up inthe 2nd game.. then he went to sleep and lee came back at him like a train.. i thought dan would never recover, but at 11-4 down in the 3rd game dan finally got his head back on.. from then on all lee could do was get odd points.. in the same way that was all he could do before when dan was concentrating. the worrying thing for me is that dan must be totally wiped out.. he's been in 3 of the top 5 longest games of the tournament.. 81. 83 and 97!! he's been on court for something silly like over 6 hours in this tournament alone.. his legs aren't taped up - but his lower back certainly is heavily taped.. LHI by contrast has only had the set that gade took from him yesterday that he has lost.. and he didn't have to work particularly hard to win the two sets.. i think LHI could be surprising us all tomorrow. WS and WD.. horrible but true.. the biggest yawn on earth MD.. well.. the danes did amazing yesterday, but all credit to the young malay pair for scaring the living daylights out of them, but the danes showed how you managed to stay at the top at 35 years old.. you change your game and exploit ur opponents weaknesses while masking ur own.. once they had the first game the young pair couldn't change in order to make the difference XD didn't really see this yesterday.. but from what i've heard Nathan and Gail were pretty dominant again Nova and Lilyana - but this is to be expected.. they know each others game and Nathan and Gail have gone from strenght to strength.. i would say for a double pair they're probably in their peak age.. old enough to have experience of the game and young enough to play loads of tournament and matches. but they play their arch nemeses from the olympics and other tournament.. can't remember the head to head.. of late i think it's in Nathan and Gails favour.. and Zhang and Gao haven't been as consistent as they used to be. whereas Nathan and Gail have been in the finals of most and the semi finals of the rest of the tournaments they've entered since nathan came back from injury.. I don't expect, but i would put good money on nathan and gail being the first home pair to defend the all england in 25 years okay.. enough chat from me.. not sure if i'll be able to commentate tomorrow.. hope so.. because if i do i'll be joining the illustrious 1000 club (more than 1000 posts ) do i get something kwun? Coops
I think only LCW and Taufik can match Lin Dan at the moment. Too bad LCD lost by a thight margin. LCW has playd an excellent game yesterday. He showed a lot of patience with splendid net play.
I picked Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah to win. The Danes were doing well yesterday, but remember that the opponent was effectively having one serve.
Gail Emms had shown me how important the role of a lady player in the XD. She is superbly fast, her interception at the net is unbelievable. Hope that she can show it again tonite.
LCW should have beaten Lin Dan, but unfortunately it looked like his stamina ran out. Oh well, hope Lin Dan takes the title then.
MS Lin Dan Vs Lee Hyun Il Lefty Lin Dan has the edge of consistency over Lefty Lee. So 2nd AE title for Lin Dan. WS Zhang Ning Vs Xie Xing Fang Interesting! Zhang Ning never won before. In terms of skill, I gauge them 50:50. Presuming that a curse of AE on Zhang Ning will go on. So the winner will be XXF. MD Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah Vs Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard-Hansen Love to see Choong/Lee get revenge over Jens/Martin. However remembering several cases of MAS team being best losers in the cricuits, I will go with Jens/Martin for Titile. WD Gao Ling/Huang Sui Vs Zhang Jie Wen/Yang Wei History make me more interesting than the actual game as regular faces and playing styles from both teams in many WD finals. Gao/Huang almost never won over Zhang/Yang except in AE. And they are 5 times champs of AE. So following the history, my prediction will go to Gao/Huang. MXD Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms Vs Zhang Jun/Gao Ling The game that will create the most noise from the crowd for sure. In terms of skill, I rate 50:50. But I will rate 60 (Nathan/Gail) to 40 (Zhang/Gao) in terms of chances as home crowd will push English team to crown for second time.
I'm very happy that all my predictions are correct. Hopefully the winners are also correct. jia you Lin Dan and Zhang/Gao Yannie, since you are from Fujian. Is true that Lin Dan is a Hakka? He was born in Shanghang, which is a Hakka county in Fujian? Hakka culture is a lil bit different with common Fujian. Thx
MS Lin Dan VS Lee Hyun Il It all depends on how tired Lin Dan will be in tomorrow's match. As long as he can recover from previous long matches, he should be the winner. WS Zhang Ning VS Xie Xing Fang Zhang Ning longs for this title for long time, I think this time she should have a fair good chance. MD Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard-Hansen VS Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah Given it is in England and previous records for MAS players, I think Danish team is more likely to win. WD Zhang Jie Wen/Yang Wei VS Gao Ling/Huang Sui Yang Wei/Zhang JieWen should be the winner as usual, as they outpower the other pair, and Gao Ling has just finished the MX double, so the odds is even worse for Gao/Huang. Unless LYB asked, so Gao/Huang will getting even more Champions in All-England, which is quite possible. MXD Zhang Jun/Gao Ling VS Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms It is a tight call, but I think Zhang/Gao, with the performance against Thailand pair, should be able to beat the English pair.
Yeah, she's lightning quick and accurate in the net, I thought only top Asian WD players can do that. Lilyana had to be two steps further from her ideal net position, such is Gail's dominance. If ENG had two of Gail, they'd be among top 5 WD. Only problem is perhaps her defense is not that strong.
Lin Dan hasnt lost to Lee Hyun Il since German Open 2003, and they've met several times since then (Thomas Cup 2004 semis, AE05, WC05 - the ones i remember w/o checking). Unless LeeHyunIl has drastically improved, I think Lin will grab his second AE title despite his marathon against LCW
Not a stamina issue, both players were ragged. LD cut down on his mistakes and hit purple patch after trailing behind. LCW had given his all, very sad that he lost after playing his best against CH and LD. Now LD knows that LCW really has the mental capability to match and beat him outside of Malaysia. Good luck to LD, it would be a crime not to win the title after last night's performance.
MS - no question and no excuses, LD must win! If LCW can do two tough matches back to back, so can he. With all due respect to LHI, he's not in the same league as LD and LCW (even though he beat LCW before). MD - MAS pair will win, unless Jane Hancock is around or one of them gets injured. Not discounting the great Danes, but the MAS pair is tactically superior, even in that controversial final two years ago. Plus they are not even seeded this time.
couldn't agree more. good fight between the 2 and great effort from both players. LCW is a fighter. Lin Dan jia you!!!!!!
MD finals is the repeat of 2003's...but this time I hope the results will be the opposite...m'sia boleh
i was reading some of your commentatings during the MD's match yesterday, and it was enjoyable.. even though we were not siding the same side! didn't carry on reading however for the MS' match because i chose to watch the SIARAN LANGSUNG, of course! witnessed the impressive and quick first game taken by lin dan, right until the 2nd game when he was still leading 10-8, but had to go to bed (with a heavy and longing heart) after that.. i was hoping to listen for the results on the hourly news on radio this morning, but there was none! in the end, i figured out that chong wei must've failed to topple the 'mighty lin dan', or else the radio would've informed us proudly that "it was malaysia Boleh again at the semi-finals of all england, etc. etc."... peter gade's match against lee hyun il must've been a shock for some of us huh? especially when he lost so tamely to the korean in the two sets following his roaring win of the first!
