Tantowi Ahmad / Lilyana Natsir ( A new Bomber )

[miksss]

They are on Taipei GPG final.. They became runner up last year,lost to Hendra/Vita. Hope they win it his year!

[SibugiChai]

seems like the has become a real deal with natsir playing a bigger role & ahmad smashing from the bak..

[miksss]

OH MY GOD.......

they have lead 19-14 in the second set and ONLY NEED 2 POINTS TO WIN THE MATCH..then lost it 19-21...! eventually lost in rubber set..!!!

The same goes when they have reached MATCH POINTS 20-17 against Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei..then lost it as well...!

They so easy lost FOCUS...

And they lost again after lead 17-12 in second game..

AND.. after having such a great result in past few months. This issue is appear again, leading many points and suddenly lost focus This is why they lost in Taipei and Japan Open.

[Bhinneka]

if you read kompas today, butet said that towi was overconfidence with his big smash

while nova/vita use their exp. to play calm and solid in their defence

towi should really learn from that defeat against nova/vita

[miksss]

and Butet also said that Towi still hasty and make many mistakes.

[luvina]

Just known they failed cruise into in the 2nd round Denmark Open SSP 2011 yesterday

[george@chongwei]

and Butet also said that Towi still hasty and make many mistakes.

He's still young and needs times to adjust..

[miksss]

He's still young and needs times to adjust..

http://pb-pbsi.org/app/information/newsDetail.aspx?/460

base on this news, Lee/Ha give many difficult shot to them and Towi/Butet also keep making mistakes.

[Bhinneka]

towi/liliyana should ask joachim/christina how to beat chn pair

this danish pair beat chn pair with style ..

just my rough opinion

[badMania]

When asked why they lost to the Danish pair, this was the response given by Tontowi:
Kami memang kurang siap dan fokus untuk turnamen ini karena waktunya juga mepet dengan SEA Games.," kata Tontowi yang dihubungi dari Jakarta.

NOT READY AND NOT FOCUSED for a SSP tourney, which carries more prestige than a mere SEA Games? What a ridiculous answer and really showed that the INA players nowadays are too pampered and lack the discipline of past players.

Halloo??? China SSP is the last SSP of the year and that carries important points for Olympics qualifications next year and the seeding at the Olympics! How can you not be ready in winning those important points when you are one of INA's main hope for the Olympics? I am seriously disappointed with Towi's response!

Have you ever seen a CHN or KOR player not ready to play in a major tourney? Even though they might lose, they will not give these kind of excuses! Come on dude...you only played 3 matches at the SEA Games!!! While your opponent also played at the HKG SS and the Bitburger Open GPG before that.

[badMania]

Look at Ratchanok! She played in the SEA Games too, but she still managed to beat the top-seeded Wang Shixian today!

[miksss]

Hope that Towi not overjoyed with his victory with Butet after won some titles.. hope he will keep down to earth

[badMania]

Some luck for Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir as they won their 4th titles this year (and 5th title if including the SEA Games Gold) at the Macau Open GPG, without playing the Final Match. In total, they won 44 matches and lost 12 matches this year, including the 3 matches won at SEA Games and excluding the upcoming World Super Series Finals at Liuzhou.

Major achievements this year:
2 SS titles (India and Singapore)
2 GPG titles (Malaysia and Macau)
SEA Games Gold Medal
Bronze Medal at the World Championships (losing to Adcock/Bankier).

Other achievements:
Runner-Up at Indonesia SSP (losing to Zhang/Zhao)
Runner-Up at Chinese-Taipei GPG (losing to Ko/Eom)
SFs at the French SS (losing to Xu/Ma) and Swiss GPG (losing to Robertson/Wallwork)
QFs at the Korea SSP (losing to Zhang/Zhao)

The lows:
R16s at the AE SSP (losing to Fuchs/Michels), China SSP (losing to Laybourn/Rytter-Juhl), Japan SS (losing to Hong/Pan), Indonesia GPG (to Nova/Vita)
R32s at the Malaysia SS (losing to Xu/Yu), Denmark SSP (losing to Lee/Ha)

Breakdown of losses: 6 to CHN pairs (yes, this is still the major problems!), 3 to European pairs (2 ENG and 1 DEN), 2 to KOR pairs, and 1 to INA pair.

Despite the inconsistencies they had, I would say 2011 has been a very productive year for Towi/Butet! I hope they can maintain that in the important year of 2012! Let's see how they fare at the London Olympics 2012.

In terms of number of titles won, Towi/Butet are just behind the World no 1 and reigning World Champions Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei, who won 6 titles this year, including the WC title, 3 SSP titles (Korea, Indonesia, and China), 1 SS title (Hong Kong), and 1 GPG title (Badminton Asia Championship).

[badMania]

Towi/Butet will be seeded 5th at Liuzhou. So, the pairs among the top 4 seeds in their groups would be:
Possibility 1: Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (top-seed), Chen Hung-Ling/Cheng Wen-Hsing
Possibility 2: Joachim Fischer-Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen (second-seed), Xu Chen/Ma Jin

Between these 2, I think Towi/Butet will prefer to be grouped together with Zhang/Zhao and Chen/Cheng. The chance of progressing to the SF will be larger.

1 other pair will be from either Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam, Shintaro Ikeda, Reiko Shiota or Robert Blair/Gabrielle White.

[lcleing]

When asked why they lost to the Danish pair, this was the response given by Tontowi:
Kami memang kurang siap dan fokus untuk turnamen ini karena waktunya juga mepet dengan SEA Games.," kata Tontowi yang dihubungi dari Jakarta.

NOT READY AND NOT FOCUSED for a SSP tourney, which carries more prestige than a mere SEA Games? What a ridiculous answer and really showed that the INA players nowadays are too pampered and lack the discipline of past players.

Halloo??? China SSP is the last SSP of the year and that carries important points for Olympics qualifications next year and the seeding at the Olympics! How can you not be ready in winning those important points when you are one of INA's main hope for the Olympics? I am seriously disappointed with Towi's response!

Have you ever seen a CHN or KOR player not ready to play in a major tourney? Even though they might lose, they will not give these kind of excuses! Come on dude...you only played 3 matches at the SEA Games!!! While your opponent also played at the HKG SS and the Bitburger Open GPG before that.

Come on, badMania, just chill out. He only said that he wasn't as well prepared as he has to spend time playing the SEA games which I think that is a fair point as he will certainly be more prepared if there wasn't a SEA game around. What else would you expect him to say? He lost because of luck? That certainly ain't the answer you look for either.

You are starting to sound like a Malaysian fan and keep comparing this pair to the Chinese players. No one wins all the time and I think Ahmad Tantowi did pretty well with Liliyana with such a short partnership.

The truth is even the great China has only one Zhang Nan/Zhao Yun Lei and their second pair is in a slump. Please bear in mind that all of these acheivements by the Chinese are built on the misery and sacrifice of thousands of people (players and coaches). And they have only two solid pairs after all the sacrifice they had made. Please don't even mention about the Koreans, when was the last time they won a Super Series or a major tournament in XD (other than the Asian Games)? It's certainly not fair to compare them to the Chinese and Korean.

My humble opinion is that people are a little too harsh on the young Tantowi. Please give him a little more space to grow.

[Sandy]

Watching Lee/Ha vs Xu/Ma in Korea Final, both pair has good defense. Towi's defense is very weak, his return often easy to killed by the opponents.

Surprise, Ha Jung Eun has good power, allways attack from back side. No matter she play in front side or back side.

Butet & Ma Jin are similar, both players has problem on back side. The big different is Xu/Ma are very good in rotation, very fast and fluently while Towi/Butet are stack on their position.

[Licin]

Towi/Butet will face Thomas Laybourn & Kamilla Rytter Juhl a convincing mixed doubles duo from Denmark whose performances has been increased sharply in this two weeks, defeated their compatriots JFN/CP & Xu Chen/Ma Jin on their way to the final. All the best to Towi/Butet