Korean Open 2008 - Semifinals Predictions Malaysia's interest in all fields were swept away when Chin Eei Hui and Wong Pei Tty were convincingly beaten by Koreans Lee/Lee. The Semifinals will be a dull encounter for the Malaysians. Kenneth Jonassen vs. Lee Hyun Il Kenneth will be looking avenge his defeat in the semifinals of the Malaysian Open where he lost to Lee Hyun Il in straight sets. Lee has been in impressive form, beating a flu ridden Lee Chong Wei, who retired half way through his match. Kenneth was again impressive in today's dismissal of Chen Jin, and will look to appear in the first finals of the Super Series tournament. Lee to win in 3 sets. Jun Jae Youn vs. Zhou Mi Both of them had tough opponents today, and both of them were impressive in beating their opponents in straight sets. Jun beat Xu Huaiwen of Germany to advance to the Semifinals while Zhou Mi sent an off form Zhang Ning packing. Of the two, Zhou Mi is the one that has impressed me more, and I think she will just claim this set by the thinnest of margins. Gao Ling/Zhao Tingting vs. Lee Hyo Jung/Lee Kyung Won The Korean pair dashed Malaysia's hopes of representation in the Semifinals today by beating our top Women's Doubles shuttlers 21-14 21-14. Gao and Zhao on the other hand, also had a convincing victory over Japanese 'cuties' Kumiko and Reiko. This is another hard match to decide, and I think Gao and Zhao will ultimately prevail in 3 sets. full article: The Badminton Blog - Korean Open 2008 - Semifinals Predictions
2 INA pairs are left in the Semi-Finals now. MEN'S DOUBLES Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen vs Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto [6] -- the Danish pair holds the edge, but, Luluk/Alvent can surprise yet again as they have shown in the past two days MIXED DOUBLES Jens Eriksen/Helle Nielsen or Chen Hong-Ling/Chou Chia-Chi vs Flandy Limpele/Vita Marissa [4] -- regardless of the outcome of the last match of the day, Flandy/Vita should make it to another Super Series Final and hopefully winning their 3rd Super Series titles.
i was surprised that alvent/luluk managed to beat LYD/JJS after losing by so much in the first set. i have to agree with both your predictions here though.
Only 3 out of 10 China player lost their matches... that's only 30%. Compare to Malaysia's 100% lost ratio in the quarter finals... it is all good. It's all about your perspective. However, full credit given to the Denmark team!!! possible all Denmark final in both MS and MD... amazing! Also Chinese Taipei has 2 representatives in the semi-final!!! Let's go Taipei!!!
We need the Euro-players to do well! I'd give a 10% chance of that happening... But if yes, then it might be good for badminton as a whole... We need the Europeans to forever be contenders in badminton... If they are not around, then badminton won't get their support to still be an Olympic sport... We need Euro-badminton to do well... but their young players between ages 20-30 for the most part are not promising... :crying: The current good contenders are basically all in their 30s...
It will be exciting matches in the MS... KJ Vs LHI I think its 40-60 to LHi who has seem to find his groove again, this guy is a serious threat in any tournament... LD vs PG I think it's about 70-30 to Lin Dan also, as PG would've been truly exhausted from todays tough 3 setter against the mentally fragile and unstable BCL.
The point is WD is excluded automatically for most ppl I think. It's indeed a bad result for China. Only one in the last four in all events except WD. LD should take the title for sure. Cai/Fu should have 50% chance. XD, WS basically 25%. Adding up, Chn should expect to take 3 titles.
My take... MS Lin Dan vs Peter Gade - The top seed is the clear favorite will go all the way to defend his title. Kenneth vs Lee Hyun Il - A rematch of SF last week. Both have been in great form. The resurgent Lee will win again. WS Lu Lan vs Cheng Shao-Chieh - The Chinese has been shaky lately but she still has enough to take care of the Taiwanese. Zhou Mi vs Jun Jae Youn - A tight match. If not mistaken, Jun has beaten Zhou before in Uber Cup many years ago. MD Lars/Jonas vs Luluk/Alvent - The former World Champions are back and will target for their 1st SS title. Fu/Cai vs Marthias/Carsten - The Chinese top pair will prevail. Upset is not impossible. WD Gao/Zhao vs Lee/Lee - Expect another all-Chinese WD final again. Zhang/Wei vs Du/Yu - The latter pair needs more points for Olympic. XD Xie/Zhang vs Lee/Lee - The unseeded Korean pair will win in 3 sets. Chen/Chou vs Flandy/Vita - The Indonesians shoud take this one.
LD vs PG - favourite to LD but I don't PG could bring up a close game like he did many times. 70-30 to Lin LHI vs KJ - KJ is well known for entering quarters but not finals, plus Lee is playing on his home soil, so 65-35 to Lee. Lars/Jonas vs Luluk/Alvent - the former wc is going so strong lately and if the top 4 couldn't stop them, I don't think Luluk/Alvent can do it easily. 75-25 Fu/Cai vs Marthias/Carsten - Impressive result for the Danes, but Fu/Cai seems too much for them to handle. 70-30
Seems like this year Olympic for badminton medals will be the fiercest ones. If you asked me last year, which countries will win the gold medals, my answer will be between China, Malaysia, Indonesia and maybe England in XD. But what happen? England mix had stuck and slump lately. China, Malasysia and Indonesia, most of their players just stuck in the place without any significant progress. And other countries had come closing the gap now fast and furious. Denmark and Korea who had the worst year in 2006 (Thomas and Uber Cup) came out strongly now. Korea had one solid MD, now very good XD and it seems Lee Hyun Il back in form. Denmark astonished me the most. Even last year, all of their players except PG did not do so well. But now, Tine Rasmussen, Kenneth J, LP/JR plus Mathias/ Carsten suddenly seems like very hard to beat. Only Jens/Martin who did not play well now probably cause age problem. Japan also suprising since World C 2007. Their 2 pair of MD had progress a lot that they really trouble the top MD pairs like KKK/TBH, Markis/Hendra , Cai/Fu etc. And now suddenly Taiwan MD also had excellent hard training and already show the result. Chieh/Lee beat Indonesia third MD. And lost narrowly to JR/LP. The race for Olympic gold medal will be hard to predict this year except for maybe WD. If Indonesia, China and Malaysia wanted to win the gold medals this year, they really had to work and train even harder, otherwise maybe there will be a very suprise gold medal winner.
LYB probably will decide which 3 out of 4 China WD will be participate in Olympic based on their results this year. And of course the mix results too. In my opinion, the best choice will be for Gao Ling only to play XD. With her age now and the fierce competition in XD, if she play both, she probably ended up without any gold medal. In WD, her fierce competition came from her own teammate. This also for Indonesia pair. If Nova/Butet and Flandy/Vita wanted to win the elusive XD gold medal, PBSI have to not play Butet/Vita in Olympic. Not that Butet/Vita is not good. But after their awesome win in China Open, they did not show the same result now by losing not only to China pairs but also other countries pairs. They probably will get into the last 8 or semifinal of Olympic but their chances to win the gold medal is very slim. Better to concentrate on XD which Indonesia had a good chances to win gold medal with 2 solid XD pairs than tired out Butet/Vita by playing twice a day.
MS Lin Dan vs Peter Gade - LD all the way Kenneth vs Lee Hyun Il - Kenneth will win in 3 sets WS Lu Lan vs Cheng Shao-Chieh - Lu Lan will win. Zhou Mi vs Jun Jae Youn - A tight match. But Zhou had all the good to defaet JJY. MD Lars/Jonas vs Luluk/Alvent - Go JR/ LP! Fu/Cai vs Marthias/Carsten - Cai/Fu will win but if they do not careful, they could lost. Now lots of team already know how to play Cai/Fu. WD Gao/Zhao vs Lee/Lee - Yep! Gao/Zhao will win. Zhang/Wei vs Du/Yu - Du/Yu will win cause they are better than Zhang/Wei now and younger. XD Xie/Zhang vs Lee/Lee - Tough to call. But Lee/Lee probably win cause they are on fire lately. Chen/Chou vs Flandy/Vita - Flandy/Vita win in 2 sets.
agreed... btw i agree with comments made earlier that badminton is becoming increasingly competitive. last year and 2006, it was all about CHN, with INA, MAL, KOR and DEN occasionally getting good results, but not consistent, except for KKK/TBH, LCW and the INA XDs...Gade seemed like on the decline, and Jonnassen was just a regular quarterfinalist but not more... Now, any pair from countries like Germany and Japan can upset any players from those top badminton powers...and Denmark is riding a wave of resurgence...suddenly, they are back as a genuine threat to CHN's traditional dominance in MS, and INA's for MD...plus they have Rasmussen...with her and wong mew choo, jun jae youn etc., vita/lilyana china's greatwall doesn't seem so impenetrable anymore... It seems because of the gap between China and the rest of the world, other countries worked hard to catchup and now we are seeing the results.
Agreed! I think Denmark is going strong this year, and Korea too, even SSM start to perform again recently! But the biggest surprise should comes from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) . 1 representative in semis on MD and WS respectively and 1 MD into quarter! The Taipei team does deserve more gossip on this forum.
