Dang man, Tony and Candra have been consistently losing out in the semi finals. It feels as if they are having alot of trouble keeping the pace up, and subsequenty run out of Gas. And most of the time, they are very very close to winning. And it also feels that they do their best to finish the game off in two sets. Possibly because their Gas lights up during the 3rd set ? T_T. Hopefully Tony's Windshield Wiper action, and Candra "AHHH" action can bring them some more titles.
nah, they just don't train. they're top even though they don't do lots of training, which goes to show how much talent they have. but currently, i do believe they just meet up a the tournament and then play. they're doing it because they love the sport, not to win.
My 2 cents-Where's the gas??... ...well, IMO, there's one word: AGE lack of training/sparring could be part of it..But even if they train all they want "til the cows come home", reality is they won't be the same as they were 5-6 or 7 yrs ago..*sigh*those were the yrs*sigh*..Compare them to their other veteran compatriots, LWW&CTF or JE&MLH or LP&JR and others, i'm sure those pairs practice/play a lot, yet they haven't won anything recently(except LWW&CTF victory over KKK&TBH in ABC).. Of course they all can compete and still play with the rest of their competitions(thru experience & skills), but reality is they can't match esp. the younger pairs, esp. those close to their levels..The facts & their results proof it..Players' peak yrs, esp. in MD, are so few and between that once they pass that stage, they just don't have it anymore..Even if they do and win, they'll most likely be a few here & there.. Btw, Tony & Candra have reached *at least* the Semifinals stage in all of their current SS tourneys, with a couple times or so losing in the Finals stage.. Oh, I remember ants' quote a few days/weeks ago, which he mentioned: "When you're old........."(aih forgot, maybe ants can enlighten us, again, on the rest)..
Tony/Candra's records are actually the most consistent among all pairs so far, 1 finals appearance + 5 semis in 6 Super Series. Compare to Fu/Cai, Koo/Tan, Eriksen/Lundgaard, Jung/Lee and Choong/Lee, who even lost in the opening rounds at some of the tournaments. That bears some thought, but I do agree that fitness is an issue. They need to plan out their gameplan better, say, to win game 1 at all cost and throw away game 2. It's still a risk though. For example, in the 3rd game yesterday, fatigue must have contributed to their mistakes initially. When they recovered at mid-game, it was too much to do to catch up. The same happened in Swiss and S'pore Opens. About the only 3 gamer they played all out was in All-England, when Tony's broken string gave Cai/Fu matchpoint.
For TG/CW to still be able to compete and be there amongst the best today is already an achievement. They are still top class despite their advance age. And this is something our KKK/TBH and our junior pairs needs to learn. TG/CW discipline and dedication are second to none. They are model professionals.
Yes.. ..that's correct, thanks for confirming that, abedeng ..Btw, this thought just crossed my mind, that perhaps Tony & Candra are satisfied in reaching the Semis in all these SS and collect whatever prize monies there are..
yeah, well, **** happens i guess ... but breaking a string is still better than getting a bad line call, this seems to be happening more frequently lately. even though TG/CW appear to be slowing down especially in the 3rd set, they are still a lethal force. more often than not, their loss have been to the pair which have gone on to win the title.
They still train, just not together. JE/MLH won quite a few tournaments when they were older than TG/CW now. I think the main reason is that the field is just very competitive now. You almost have to take turns winning. Maybe, it's just not the turn of TG/CW yet. Of course, training together (in Indonesia) will help a lot.
Agree with Antz as far as technical and tactical abilities are concerned, unfortunately the game has moved to the speed and power domain since the PPR system is implemented. Therefore, when you get older, it is most crucial to convert the chances that come your way. Older pairs like Tony/Candra, Eriksen/Lundgaard and Choong/Lee have to evaluate what they can and cannot do, and how to capitalize and play to their strengths. The fact that they are still competitive shows there is still hope .....
Absolutely. I watched them during the SG Open and they were solid in both offence n defence. Perhaps age is catching up, but they are still very much a world beater... go go Tony/Chandra
Good add.. ..power & speed...but i thought MD's game has always been about those 2, power & speed?!?! Btw, here's ants' quote: "When you are old, you reply more on wrist power, placing and anticipation. Power is secondary even its important. I agree that their smashes nowadays lack of sting."
Train together should help I think usually when facing these young pairs, especially CY/FHF, TG/CW can routinely take the first game. So the key is whether they can get the 2nd game or not. And if we check the 2nd games of all TG/CW - C/F matches, we can see that they are very very close. If TG/CW can train together, they will improve at least a little bit (say in unforced errors), and that little bit will give them slight edge in the 2nd games, which is enough to turn their every 1:2 loss to C/F to 2:0 win.
