Source: Star Online PETALING JAYA: A change in the order of ranking is set to spice up the fight among the five nations in the Thomas Cup Finals, which will be held in Jakarta from May 11-18. When the list comes out on Thursday there are bound to be changes as the results of the Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) and the European Championships which ended recently will be taken into consideration. The change will affect five countries – defending champions China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Denmark and South Korea – in their bid for the title. And the fate of teams like Indonesia, Denmark and South Korea rests on the strength of their third singles. Indonesia were ahead tactically when they decided to withdraw ABC defending champion Taufik Hidayat in Johor Baru. Thus, his ranking remains at No. 8 which means he will play the second singles behind No. 7 Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Park Sung-hwan who won the recent men's singles title at the ABC will now be ranked higher than Lee Hyun-il when the new world ranking list is released. As for Denmark, European champion Kenneth Jonassen will be playing as the first singles for the first time with Peter Gade-Christensen at second. The first two singles players for China and Malaysia are Lin Dan, Bao Chunlai and Lee Chong Wei, Wong Choong Hann respectively. In the doubles, South Korean boast of having the strongest pairings in reigning Asian champion Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae and Lee Jae-jin-Hwang Ji-man but Indonesia could be lethal if they name Candra Wijaya together with their top two pairs – world champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan and Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto. Malaysia and Denmark will be fielding Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Jonas Rasmussen-Lars Paaske, Jens Eriksen-Martin Lundgaard Hansen as their first two pairs respectively. China probably have the weakest doubles pairing with their top two pairs Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng and Guo Zhengdong-Xie Zhongbo being inconsistent. Probably, it will all boil down to the third singles. Except for China, who will likely field All-England champion Chen Jin, no other teams have reliable third singles players. Malaysia will be counting on Mohd Hafiz Hashim; Indonesia on Simon Santoso; Denmark may put their faith on Joachim Persson; and South Korea could bank on Shon Seung-mo.
Will Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong overtake Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah in world rankings before the TC as discussed in the following thread? http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54703 (post #10 onwards)
In general, CJ is the strongest 3rd singles but JP is probably the weakest. CJ >= SS >= HH >= SSM >= JP
Taufik is MS2 not first!!!! What you guys think about it??? I already thought about it. Sony is better than Taufik now. if Indonesia meet China , It's not as good as it has to be. I want to see Taufik vs Lin Dan again.
should be Koo/Tan vs dae/sung Fairuz pair vs KOR MD2 Koo/Tan has revenge spirit to the Korean...MAS have good chance to win over the Korean MD..
