Taufik is starting to up his form. He will have drops in form as his attention will be geared to the olympics but don't be alarmed and started posting threads saying "taufik is no longer a force". He is like hoyer larsen who wins the big events and sacrifices the smaller events with his mind set on what really matters ( the majors - olympics, worlds, asian games & A.E.C ) all greats are like this. Many past 100m olympic sprint champions lost in warm up events only to come good on the big stage, even easing up in the heats to save their A game for the final ( the one that counts!!) Roger federer lost to andy murray only to thrash all of the opposition in the US open. Taufik is like this, he beat lin dan in the worlds ( or should I say trounced him ) again in the asian games. He could lose to lin dan, or any other chinese 5000 times but if he becomes double olympic champion that goes down in history forever. Hoyer larsen won 2 A.E.C championships & olympic gold. Peter gade has won many more events but hoyer is the true champion. ITS QUALITY NOT QUANTITY!!! Taufik is the same in the big events. Thats when the level of who is the best should be judged. When it matters! in those pressure situations and on the big stage. By the way, in those pressure situations lin, bao, chong wei and the rest of them don't produce the goods. And don't reply with lin dan as won this and that, ask him, I bet he would give up all his titles for 1 olympic gold.
I think it is not fair to define a true champion just based on the tournaments which have been won by Taufik. If you know the history of badminton, winning ALL ENGLAND is the greatest honour for badminton (just like winning Winbledon for Tennis, World cup for soccer) not the Olympic, ASIA or world championship.To name a few, Rudy Hartono, Morten Frost, Yang Yang, Zao Jian Hua. They all have won All England at least once if I am not mistaken. If we were to define a true champion based on the history of badminton, Taufik is not yet a true Champion because he has never won the ALL ENGLAND and I bet you he will never win it because time is running out for him. As for the Olympic Gold, after watching the Singapore open and Indonesia open results recently, I begin to believe that all the top 8 in the world will have the chance to win it. Both Lin Dan and Taufik are not unbeatable anymore. The other players have caught up and the new scoring system has improve everyone's chance to win in any tournament.
i think you're just another TH fan trying to find a plausible excuse for his lost in 2007 IO. Hey, even Indra was quiet after taufik lost in 07 IO. hehe Base on your loosey goosey analogy, if i won the super lotto (powerball in the US) and Negreanu, prolly the best poker player in the world, am i a better gambler and number picker than Negreanu?? The olympic game is big only because it is a highly promoted game and the dollar involve, it is still tough badminton whether it's OG, AE, WC, sudiman cup, thomas cup, etc...Actually the Opens are harder to win because in the OG, china can only send 3 in each catergory where as in Opens, china, MAL, denmark, KOR can send unlimited players for qualifying. Also, TH had a good draw in 04 athen, the only tough player he saw was PG. So TH beats a handicap korean in the final, whooppee I find shon as a runner up accomplished more with just 1 eye than TH with 2 eyes. Not done yet. I say ur view that TH didnt take this IO seriously is grossly incorrect. He was well rested and prepared. TH fans already say that TH only play best when he has an objective. Well, breaking ardy's old record is a milestone for an INA player and is a valid objective for TH to play seriously. Why? if TH won this IO but failed in 08 OG, TH still has the bragging rights of achieving an record of winning 7 IO titles. By losing 07 IO, TH lost this chance since he is older and slower next year. TH missed 2 BIG opportunities in 2006, (1) to win AE and (2) breaking ardy record. Come 2008, i highly doubt taufik can win the AE, 7th IO title or his 2nd olympic. Therefore, TH would have no special record for badminton history. Only tony G has titles in AE, OG and WC. The possible reason why TH make errors in the end was likely because of the home crowd. TH is expected to win. TH did not relax nor fold the 3rd set like in japan open. I believe TH took the match with BCL seriously. I havent counted yet but LD could claim the record of having the most titles won. If LD win 08 OG, he got a royal flush too
LD dont have to give up his medals to trade for a Olympic gold, LD can win it in 2008 Personally i rather owns all of LD current titles and no olympic title because if i trade them all for that 1 olympic gold, it only showed that i was lucky, not the dominating best in the class. zhao jinhua, hartono, and other greats never attained olympic gold medals, are they lower than taufik?
I agree with your opinion that TH is serious about this IO. I think he has beaten BCL too many times last year and he began to underestimate BCL. The result is suddenly BCL is leading 17:10 in the 1st game. This just totally ruined TH's game plan. But to say TH just had an easy draw in the Olympics is not fair. Who hadn't? Were LD, BCL, CH eliminated by tougher opponents than SSM and Boonsak? Don't think so. Also SSM is doing very well in big events during 03-04. Remember he reached semifinal in 03 WC? Finally, did you forget WCH? Or you think WCH in 04 is weaker than Susilo, Park, Boonsak and SSM? Olympics is one place where the underdogs suddenly gear up and play at a higher level. Yes, SSM is not a top player, but TH beated him with little effort -- whereas CH fighted for 3 sets and finally lost...
that's what meant by good draw, having opponent that u can beat although those opponents are great against other players. China lost in 04 OG because they only did homework on their key opponents like gade, taufik. When chinese players is behind the score against susilo & SSM, they panicked and crumbled.
Personally I decided that Taufik was great just by watching him. Before I actually started following the international badminton scene I watched all the badminton videos on google video and youtube and out of all the players, Taufik's relaxed style really impressed me. I got my friend to watch the All England match I think in 2004 where TH lost to PG (hope I'm not getting this wrong lol ), and my friend who doesn't even play badminton had eyes only for Taufik despite the fact he lost in the end. Taufik is just a naturally brilliant badminton player and there's no question about that. I think Taufik is great, but I think Lin Dan is great in a different respect. Lin Dan is consistent whereas Taufik is not. Lin Dan has what it takes to dominate and keep on dominating. That's where he's great. Whereas Taufik is completely unpredictable. When he is on top of his game though he really shines. He doesn't eclipse Lin Dan like he once did, but I think at his best he just seems to have that little bit extra. And I think that little bit extra is his unpredictability. Lin Dan doesn't vary his game as much. That's part of what makes him so consistent though. You can't be great at everything. They're both great in their own ways. In my opinion anyone saying the only way to be great is to be consistent is not being very open minded. IO2007: I think Taufik did underestimate Bao, but Bao definitely deserved the win this time. Taufik should have been more prepared in the second set after seeing Bao's surprising form in the first.
Lee Choong Wei made Malaysian proud in Indonesia. He is superb. Speed, power and in command. That's the way you should be playing to be a true champion.
I guess it was before the Olympic came along. Now the Olympic Gold medal is the ONE! but All England is still a special tournaments because of its history and tradision. If not mistaken AE is the oldest badminton international tournament in the world, just like FA cup in English premeir leauge but it's not the priority now...
TH lost because he wasnt in his usual form and BCL played extremely well. Period. BCL lost in the final because BCL wasnt in his usual form n LCW played extremely well. I think both matches' result were almost similar. Everyone predicted the latter would lose but it went the other way round. Suprise !!!
surprise makes badminton alive and interesting. that's how underdogs can win in Super Series. boonsak and LCW really surprised us..
Taufik lost because he is tired of winning Indonesia Open.He is afraid people may call him "kampung champion".
haha. Taufik seemed to lost his stamina and can't last long on court. he is waiting eagerly for the arrival of his baby.
Part of a winning strategy has to be to deactivate your opponent's usual best game and to surprise him by playing quite differently from what he expected.
what the hell, please stop this sort of thread Taufik admits his defeat and felt disappointed, please dont simply put words into his mouth or his action (ie he dont care if he lose), really made him sound lame. I downloaded the match provided by Aero, and you can see that he just wasn't playing his best and Bao was much better that day. Full stop.
Do you mind explaining how your post relates to the thread title??? Winning 1 IO title makes someone a true champion??? TH won 6 already by the way. Get back to this thread... Taufik lost to Bao simply because Bao was very damn good that day. Did Taufik try his best against Bao in that game... H*ll Yeah, he did... or else how are you going to explain the catch up he was doing at the end of each game. If he wasn't trying at all, he could have given up the games like he did in Japan Open 06 against Lin Dan. Taufik is at the stage where he may not be fully prepared for every tournament, but that can not always be used as an excuse for losing. There are plenty of players older than him, and they definitely can use the same excuse to cover their loss, but so far we have never heard of any Kenneth, Gade, or even Chen Hong's fans using those excuses whatsoever.
The standard between top player are not far differents, is all down to form on that day, mental readiness and luck... so I guess is not TH dayss.. TH is not superman,,, even superman got his weaknesses!
are you still watching 60's badminton? lol AE now isn't as prestigious as it used to be... ask every pro badminton player, what is more important to them, win an AE or win an OG... you'll have your answer...
