I have been to the AE again this year & enjoyed it very much this year as I have in the others. Plase bear with me if thi review drags & apologies for the delay, but leaving it later gives me the pleasure of reliving it once more! DAY 4 SEMI FINALS Not a great deal of excitement today, but nevertheless pretty interesting MS First up was LCW vs PG, whih was bit of an anticlimax, Gade was off the pace, maybe after the exertions against Taufik, but maybe he would have lost anyway. Unfortunately he was never really in the game. Tago Vs BCL This was disappointing for me as I am a big BCL fan, and after the first game I felt he was on for the big one. He was in control, but in the 2n, despite being in it all the way, he failed to close it out. He had match point, and this is the ifference between BCL & the champions, he idn't take it. I feel for the guy. Even in the 3rd I was willing him on to comeback, I felt all the way he would, but Tago has a strong will to win, and the speed, skill & stamina to match. It is difficult to point out tago's strengths, you don't look and him and think "wow", but he got the results. Time will tell if he will go on to win big thing, it my be just that he got the breaks this year & things fell in place. As for Bao he is clearly destined not to win a "big one", he s good enough skilwise, but lack the mental application to "kill" his opponents, and because of this I think it gave Tago some light that if he kept trying and forcing Bao to play one more smash, hit slightly closer to the lines, force the net kills, he would frustrate Bao & he would run out of ideas. I am sure I was blided by my want for Bao to win in the third and from others viewpoints Tago was the winer all the way. WS Wang Xin Vs WYH was a good match, but ue to other matches I didn't pour over it. Saina Vs Tine Saina looked better than ever in this years edition, leaner & smoother on her feet. Saina & Tine are imilar players in som respects, Shot makers who make a large amount of errors. Because of this the ame didn't set the heart racing, winner, error, winner, error throughout. Unfortunately for Saina currently she isn't as good as Tine. In order to beat her she must become Faster around the court. For me that is the way to beat Tine. By playing fast and attacking tine is exposed by her size and relative immobility which takes away her attacking weapons. If not Tine will control the game and with her power they wil not last long. XD The all china match was the most interesting. For the 2nd Day in a Row HHB/YY played CHN opposition, great you would think orinarily, but the new pairs gave no quarter to their more experienced compatriots this year. Zhao Yunlei, IMHO is now officially the new Gao Ling. She was all over the net, and quite clearly to me the best all week at the net. YY didn't get a look in. and Zhang Nan simply had to finish his smashes. HHB needs to improve his attack. last year they were a well balanced pair taking the share of the duties, but HHB lacked power, and this week he seemed to have les speed, and his game is about speed and control, not power & finishing, thus they struggled yesterday & today. Nova/Lilyana vs LYD/LHJ was not great. I expect the INA pair to lose a game ust as they are a "relaxed" pair, but LHJ was not controling the net & LYD likes to rally too much. He can be the new KDM, but he lacks the kiler instinct to finish off when he can. KDM controlled & finished, LYD seems to like chasing the game, gettig back in it, then chasing again. It confuses me & I hope he will learn. MD Mattias Boe/Carsten Mogensen Vs Guo/Xu The danes controlled the ame al the way. CHN huffed & puffed smashed & defended well, but The Danes played well all week, played flat & fast and put the easy ones away at the net. JR/LP vs Kido/Setiawan Anyone who watched this will wonder what went wrong for Kido/Setiwan. In the first games is was so easy for them, at the net, in the mid court, or the rear court JR/LP had no answers. Yes they took the foot off th as in the second, but in the third I expected them to up it again. They and Boe/Mogensen looked the class acts all week. But JR showed what he can do at the net and despite being 19-17 down in the third they cameback amazingly to take it. It certainly shocked me! WD I did say I would comment, but I wil leave it tomorrow. The only thing to say is The best two pairs by a long way met each other (Du/Yu & Cheng/Zhao)
Unfortunately for me Diving = bad footwork, so no, not really. Hmm tough one. Probably Tago vs Bao but I was just put off because Bao lost
I disagree about the footwork part. Diving are almost always the only option you have to save a good powerful cross court smashes(unless you can anticipate where the shots go earlier). Tago's strength was in his quick movement to the rear court, his stamina and the quality of his net shots. BCL and even LCW were outplayed at the net against KT if I remembered correctly. Tago can do multiple jump smashing throughout the matches(even though it's tight 3 sets game) and his fore hand smashes were deadly(as least during this match against LCW). The other thing about Tago is he seems alot calmer than BCL and LCW during his match in SF and F and hence less mistakes compared to BCL and LCW.
Bad footwork? not in terms of effectivenes maybe, but in terms of technique I refuse to believe Dives should be trained. Diving shows you cannot reach the shutle in a controlled manner, which is the aim of footwork.
yes indeed. If one can recover quickly after a dive, i think that's being in control it is quite impossible to save a smash 0 - 6 inches from the line using good footwork. Well, for me anyway
I agree, but we now see players diving when good footwork could reach a shuttle-where do you draw the line?, which I don't like....call me a traditionalist if you like......I get rid of the line.
There are 2 sorts of diving as far as I can tell. 1. Those that require the floor to be mopped later. 2. Those that do not.
