The 2007 is closing up... Lets recall who is/was the most improved player/pair in 2007. He/She/They does/do not have to be the best player/pair, but he/she/they must improve by a leap. My vote goes to Kido/Setiawan. I'd love to vote for cutey WMC, but she flunked in HKO . Any objections?
Most improved player, well, Lee Chong Wei, if u consider his early-year slump... If not, then maybe Chen Jin? Ah, old master Wong Choong Hahn, after his Achilles injury... My pick... Most improved pair, maybe Kido/Setiawan, but last year they have been on good form as well... Koo/Tan also...
for me...behind Markis Kido/Hendra "the ice masn Setyawan... most improved player ever are kwun/badMania....they are the real legend and MD champion of BC......u can find their picture in thread the HK Open 2007 MD winners
Definitely WMC. Kido/Setiawan has been among the top 3, 4 for a long time and they usually did well in the last 1/3 of a year.
My vote will go to the Japanese pairs in MD. Both Tadashi Ohtsuka/Keita Masuda and Shuichi Sakamoto/Shintaro Ikeda have done very well this year (especially the past 3-4 mths), under the tutelage of Park Joo Bong. They are ranked 12 and 13th respectively, just 1 place below AG/Joko and 2 places below Luluk/Alvent Since the World Championships, Ohtsuka/Masuda have reaced the Semi-Final of French Open + Quarter-Finals of Japan and Hong Kong Opens. Their achievements include beating the pairs ranked above them such as: Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen (French Open R32), Hendra A. Gunawan/Joko Riyadi (R16), Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (QF), and Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae (Japan Open R16). They also won the US Open 2007. I actually like this pair, after meeting Keita Masuda in the Hong Kong Open....he's such a nice guy As for Sakamoto/Ikeda, their best achievement was winning the bronze medal in the World Championships, with that phenomenal upset over Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong in a very tight match. They have beaten Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard Hansen (Japan Open R16), Hendri Kurniawan Saputra/Hendra Wijaya (Malaysia Open R32), Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari/Lin Woon Fui (R16), and Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto (World Championships R16). I will keep a lookout for both pairs in 2008.
WMC for WS(broke the great wall in sensational way), Sony K for MS(from lesser known to runner-up WC), Liliyana/Marissa for WD (they broke the great wall also in sensational way), Japanese pairs for MD (broke many types of walls samurai way) No candidates for XD, pretty much still the domain of the top ranks.
Wong Mew Choo is the most improved player in 2007 Hi jimbo, Looking back at the year 2007...... the player(s) who surprised me the most... I have to say, it's Wong Mew Choo. Who would have thought that she could beat Pi Hongyan, Zhu Lin, Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang ? So, my vote: Wong Mew Choo is the most improved player in 2007. Cheers... chris@ccc ***
Lin Dan... for beating Taufik every single time they meet during 2007. How about the player who played the worst compared to last year? My vote goes to Chen Hong.:crying:
what is the age of chen hong actually ? around 30s?he still can hold the racket and compete with lindan..good enough..he did impressed us several years ago what? dont cry for him.
my vote goes to wong mew choo.it is unavoidable.she's improved a lot this year. i wish i could vote 4 my kkk,but sorry kkk,i have to dismiss u from the list.i hope '08 will be a better year. he did got the num.1 title this year but something is missing in his game. big-headed? no.discplined?no.but something is missing. something that abide me to keep be his fan no matter what.he is losing that.
He is 28. The main thing is that he was dominant in the last part of 2006... includes his performance in WC 06, winning China open, and immediately Denmark open. This year, ever since he left China national team, his performance dropped unbelievably. Losing tamely to Taufik, LCW, Boonsak, and others... losing is okay, but losing badly is a different story.:crying::crying::crying:
then.i think i have to agree.he is in the list of a player that played worst compared to last year.hes just 28.should perform better i think. hey,bananakid.4 the first time i do agree with u. seriously,i hope chen hong can give us something before he left pro badminton world completely.something that can put him as a legend.
WS - Wong Mew Choo (duno from wat ranking climb till 8th now!) MS - Wacha (being unknown for a long time but shocked all of us this year!) WD - Du Jing/Yu Yang (they did very well to beat their own country top pair) MD - Sakamoto/Ikeda (the onli one who shocked all the mas fans in their homeground) XD - Marissa/Limpele (being quite good condition this year since they paired up)
I would tend to agree on these 3 choices. For WS, Wong Mew Choo has really stunned the Chinese in their homeground Something that no player has ever done for a long long time. She deserves the credit! For MS, Przmyslaw Wacha has improved a lot. Besides Peter Gade and Kenneth Jonassen, he's the only non-Asian player in the top 15 That's a tremendous achievements. There are also many others which is why the choice for MS may not be that obvious. Boonsak Ponsana for winning the Singapore Open this year. Simon Santoso has also improved and rises up the ranks to top 12. Other players that caught my eyes: Tan Chun Seang (yes, he certainly did well in that short spell of period, winning a few titles along the way), Andre Kurniawan Tedjono, and a few others. As for XD, Flandy Limpele/Vita Marissa have done well to win 3 titles, including 2 Super Series and 1 GP Gold. I hope both Flandy/Vita and Nova/Butet will be in the podium of the Beijing Olympics next year. He Hanbin/Yu Yang have also risen up the ranks to be in the top 8 and China's no 3 XD pair, winning 2 GP Golds and 1 Super Series.
boonsak poosana? i thought he was a mess this year ? he did any unexpected winning?win any major tournament?
if your topic is about most improved players... we should benchmark with past perfomance such as comparing 2006 with 2007 for Kido/Setiawan case they perfomed well but they might not be most improved coz they are good since 2006... i am sorry i did not do much research but their titles for 2007 might be lesser than 2006... sorry, not to downgrade them, in fact they are the only non-malaysian pair that i like but just wanna correct your topic
he won s'pore open ler.. is part of super series.. consider upset results for him but he is still a bit yo yo..