Anyone know why so many of the top Korean and Chinese players, especially doubles players, have not come to the tournament this year? Has the tournament been downgraded? I know it's a 4 star event, I thought that was one level below Grand Prix, or is it the highest level? In any case, it means there will be a lot of great talent missing. One would hope to see at least most of the top 10 in every event, but in men's doubles, about half are missing.
Hello... I haven't any "official" info myself but according to one of the msgs posted here (on another thread), the Koreans may well be trying to conceal their strength so that they'll have a good showing at the World C'ships. There haven't been any reports of injuries and all, so I s'ppose this is as good a guess as any. As for the Chinese, a lot of the top doubles players like the lengendary Ge Fei/Gu Jun have already gone into retirement. Probably also coz they wanna test their youngsters out... you could refer to one of the threads posted by Kwun. Lots of newcomers the Chn are sending. If I'm not wrong, the highest ranked event (in terms of cold hard cash) is 6-star.
