Everybody's been talking about how they needed to step up or get split up and I even saw someone mention them retiring. What's the deal with this pair now? I would never imagine them getting broken up since they're consistently semi- and finalists.
Maybe the team wants them to split up, and pair up with some young guns. Therefore, the young ones can learn and gain experience, while help to cover them with their better speed and stamina?
AFAIK, Chinese team is managed by central authority, not democratic process. Pairing up is not up to players themselves. Just my guess. I think LYB is planning for 2008 OG, and he wants assurance that OG WD final will be between Chinese pair (and so assured gold medal). The pair has not been as consistent in being in the final lately due to injury etc, so if LYB is concerned about consistency, the time to consider a new pair is now so the new pair can accumulate enough ranking points to qualify for OG. Don't get me wrong. YW/ZJW played great, but their recent performance puts into question whether they can be counted on to be in 2008 OG WD final. In contrast, GL/HS is more reliable recently.
As I watched performance of PHY in WS SF and final, it occurred to me the advantage of having a strong team. PHY got tired of fighting ZN the day before, and XXF had an easier time beating her in the final. When your team has 3 out of 4 in the SF, your team can have an unfair advantage: let the most promising player win easily in SF and he/she is well rested for the final, and let the other one fight it out in the other SF. Final will be either between your team, or the competition is tired from previous SF and doesn't play as well. This strategy depends on your team have 3 reliable pairs in SF. 4 would be even better. Being unreliable can justify change. Now that YW/ZJW were in AE final, I think the pair is safe for now.
icic. Well I hope they are kept together cause I think they're still a strong, formidable team. Of course, Zhang Yawen and Wei Yili winning the AE final was an odd upset against them in my mind....
I think they might be split to pair with more young uns. So far they have only 1 reasonably strong new pair (ZY/WY - new All-England champs) but need at least 2 to replace YW/ZJ and Gao/Huang. Yang Wei herself paired with a more experienced player when she started. Possibly also Gao Ling will concentrate on XD and Huang Sui paired with someone else, it is really difficult to maintain peak performance on 2 different disciplines when you are at late 20s.
Yes it is difficult and Gao Ling almost lost the XD to the English as well! China should be thankful that in the women's arena the other countries still do not possess newfound talents like KKK/TBH in the men's, granted that China's MD were not as dominant in world badminton. But even here in WS, the great Zhang Ning has lost to Pi Hongyan of France in the SF and was thus deprived of ever winning the prestigious AE in her badminton career. To think that Pi (and perhaps Xu of Germany) was considered not good enough for China because she was too short and now she has beaten the much taller Olympic Champion, Zhang Ning! The rest of the world will catch up with China in due course. The release of more Chinese players after their early retirement can hasten the process. And badminton will be made more interesting by not having China's players pitting against each other in many finals. What a let down it was to watch Chen Yu given a badminton lesson by Lin Dan at such a prestigious event like the AE final!
Zhang Ning can actually consider retirement.. But China hangs on to Zhang Ning?? Why?? Simple reasons, if Zhang Ning fails to win, Xie Xing Fang can help China to win.. If Zhang Ning retires and Xie Xing Fang loses, all the hope on ZL, WYH, WL.. dun forget, WMC beat WYH and WL in the recent AE..
I think this is the rule, any country needs at least 2 strong players/pairs per discipline to be competitive, 3 to be dominant, and 4 (as is CHN MS now) to really tower over their opponents. Probably the reason why CHN not doing well in MD (only 1 strong pair), and under threat in XD (only 2 strong pairs).
I noticed that in the 2007 swiss open yang wei is partnered with zhao tingting. could yang wei/zhang jiewen have already been split up? can anybody confirm? [CHN] Tingting ZHAO [CHN] Wei YANG
I just noticed that too actually. Wonder who they'd pair ZJW with if they even do. If I had to pick a weaker link of the two, I'd say she is it...
i dunno, seems more like a tactical win for LD rather than a poor performance by CY. conspiracy theory perhaps, but my gut feel is that he didn't put 100% into the game ...
for those of you interested: 奥运羽球积分赛临近 张洁雯/杨维组合面临分手 http://2008.qq.com 2007年03月17日10:46 东方体育日报 我要评论(0) 奥运羽球积分赛临近 张洁雯/杨维组合面临分手 随着奥运积分赛的临近，中国羽毛球队又有新动作。正在进行的瑞士超级赛上，雅典奥运会女双冠军张洁雯高挂免战牌，替代她与杨维搭档的是赵婷婷。这是继张军 /高崚这对奥运冠军被拆散后，又一对可能“分手”的奥运冠军组合。总教练李永波始终认为：2008年北京奥运会，过去的奥运冠军并不能成为当然的参赛者。 在连夺德国、全英女单冠军之后，世界排名第一的谢杏芳暂时休战。瑞士超级赛，中国队派出了张宁、蒋燕皎和卢兰的阵容，目前均闯进八强。 此前受感冒困扰的张宁，在全英公开赛上状态一般，负于皮红艳无缘决赛。李永波表示，“张宁已经三十多岁了，不可能像年轻球员那样每场比赛都去拼，肯定会根据比赛的重要性来合理调配自己的体力和状态。”这次失利肯定不会影响到她在国家队的位置。 而另一位老将张军，状况就不那么乐观了。继全英公开赛中过早被淘汰后，张军/赵婷婷在瑞士再遭“重创”。他们在与俄罗斯组合杜尔金/索洛金娜的对决中拼尽全力，但最终仍以0比2(19比21，16比21)败下阵来。“张军最近的状态确实不理想，主要体现在体重上去之后，他在球场上的移动明显不如以前，这已经影响到了他在比赛中的正常发挥。如果再过一段时间，张军的状态还没有好转的话，参加 2008奥运会确实有点悬。”李永波已经向张军下了“最后通牒”。 同样是雅典奥运会冠军的张洁雯，处境则有些尴尬。在全英公开赛决赛负于魏轶力/张亚雯之后，张洁雯就提前回国。尝试配对的杨维/赵婷婷分别以2比0战胜荷兰组合库斯腾/多奥雷马琳、以及韩国组合黄游美/金旻贞，挺进八强。 李永波认为，21分制对杨维/张洁雯的打法很不利。“张洁雯的防守现在有较大问题，比赛中她防守时很勉强，而且比较怕防守，这使她变得打法不够全面，由于不全面，在场上丢分的机会就多了。”李永波说，“要解决这一问题，我们准备从两方面入手：一是尽量帮助她恢复信心，其实她在平时训练时，防守能力很强，但一到比赛就不相信自己；二是如果经过一段时间仍无明显改观，就会尽快将她们拆对，重新搭配出更强的组合。”(邹晔) If Chinese school taught me anything, it kind of sounds like there's a possibility that they might pair ZJW/YW again if she fixes her defensive problem.
to those who are interested. ZJW is now going to be partnered with Gao Ling. They could make a really strong pair I think
Both girls hv some old injury problems, thats caused their inconsistency in recent tournaments. Pairing ZJW with the Superwoman Gao might be a smart move after all. Off topic, i think is Huang Sui has gain some weight after married hehe.
Wow I look forward to seeing Gao and ZJW together. I think they'd be a really good pair. I always liked ZJW's playing but I didnt' like watching her play because her and her partner were so stoned faced. Now it'll be interesting.
