Still a mountain to climb for them as they have yet to beat any top European XD pair or the top-rated CHN pair Zhang/Zhao. I will certainly think that European pairs are harder to beat. Look at how they lost to Robertson/Wallwork and Fuchs/Michel earlier this year. Path to another SS title will not be easy: QF - Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun SF - possibly against Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei F - possibly against Nathan Robertson/Jenny Wallwork
Impressive play against XC/MJ. Tantowi really showed his capabilities in today's match. Both him and LN are simply stellar. In fact, tomorrow is SO's real SF for XD with the strongest teams on the same half featuring ZN/ZYL, HHB/YY, LYD/HJE. Glad to see LN back in form!!
I hope they can go all the way and silent the doubts about them being not tested againts the big guns yet
Towi/Butet beat Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei 23-21 21-16. Sweet revenge, last time they threw away their match points, this time they saved 6 game points to took first set 21-16. Towi/Butet are impressive this week, they beat all their opponents in 2 sets.
In final they will take on Chen Hung Ling/Chen Wen Hsing. Towi/Butet have a very good record against them. Go for the title and make hattrick..!
I am impressed by Tantowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir's performance this week and they have indeed proven to me (and the other INA fans) that they can beat the CHN pairs (3 pairs this week), including the WR1 Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei. The rivalry between them (and perhaps Xu Chen/Ma Jin) will continue for quite some time, similar to last time when we have Nova/Butet taking turns in terms of winning matches vs Zheng Bo/Gao Ling or Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen. I hope they beat the TPE pair and lift their 2nd SS title. This one will be much more meaningful since 20 out of the top 25 pairs are present in the Singapore SS!
Although they beat Chen/Cheng 3 times last year, they did slip up at the Asian Games R16 match. The key is to focus and win it quickly!
Hattrick.. Congrats for their third consecutive title this year after defeating Chen Hung Ling/Chen Wen Hsing 21-14 27-25 and win the 2011 Singapore SS title . Impressive, they win all their matches in two sets.
Congratulations to Tantowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir! 3rd consecutive titles and 5th titles overall since they were paired up together! Their performance also confirmed Richard Mainaky's belief in them as INA's no 1 XD pair and possibly best hope for the London Olympics 2012 Gold Medal! Now, go for the World Championships title first at the same venue this year!
Tantowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir will be WR2 next week, courtesy of their 2nd SS title in Singapore today!
Possible schedule after the INA SSP: Aug - World Championships Sep - China Masters SS, Japan SS, Indonesia GPG (have to defend title?) Oct - Denmark SSP, French SS Nov - SEA Games, China SSP, Macau GPG (have to defend title?) Dec - SS Finals (if they qualify) They may not be fielded to defend their titles in the Indonesia & Macau GPG and likely to be focused only for the WC, SS & SSP events + SEA Games. So, 7-10 events till the end of the year. Quite a hectic schedule....
They just got a new fan in me. I was at the Open watching their matches. Though it's the finals, the intensity is slightly lesser than the semis where they rallied back from 16-20 to 22-20! Nonetheless, yesterday was a great match! It kept me riveted to the seat and pumping the air for every points scored! Haha
