This is happening now in the Japan open. Splitting up to partner and guide less experienced members of the korean team is understandable, but I do not see the rationale for splitting partners between the top 2 teams.These guys are partners and doing darn well! In the last 3 tournaments LYD/JJS won the china masters and Ko/Yoo was a finalist in the world championship and won taipei open! anybody knows any insights??
The pair LYD/JJS and YYS/SHK are absolutely current two of strongest MD in the world. but, that is the fact that no one of two pairs secure already gold medal (I think the bet is OG 2012) Notice that there is WR #1, FHF/CY. JJS/LYD may win some matches over them, but in other occasion, the Korean could lost tamely (remember in last 3 World Championship, Koreans failed to stop CHN) IMO, the splitting is just trial and error. Nothing to lose. (in Denmark, LYD will come back with JJS) If LYD/SHK is better than LYD/JJS, the new pair will continue (theoretically, SHK is younger than JJS, and in some aspect of games or others , SHK individually better than JJS ) LYD/SHK is unstoppable in US GPG and Canada GP Let's see how far they progress in this real tournament. When they come from qualifying round, and will be same pool with Boe/Morgensen and Kindra.
My view is that by swapping, they will gain more experience and maybe have a different perception playing other top pairs. Might be good when they are back to their regular partners
There was one time, I think during Indonesia Open premiers, Gillian Clark was commenting that she suspects that LYD/JJS partnership will be ending after the OG 2012, and LYD will be partnering KSH, Gillian Clark also mentioned, they have paired before and won one title this year. Cant remember what was the tournament.
^^Yah, JJS is the oldest of the four md players and will likely retire in the next two years , so they have to start experimenting now with the smaller tournaments like this and US and Canada open.
The question is also whether JJS's body will hold up until OG 2012. DIdn't expect they would role reverse again at Denmark, they were so happy after the sf win at China MAsters you would have thought it was their last tournament together ...
this sounds quite likely. But what makes them think that LYD/KSH pairing is better then original YYS/KSH? or for that matter LYD/YYS? it seems that they only tried LYD/KSH pairing in competition previously. Original KSH/YYS can be no.1 too if you ask me. All 4 players have the pre-requisite of great doubles players but i think camaraderie and understanding between partners is the most important, and the original pairs have it! why break it up???
Yes, that'd be interesting. But I can predict Lee and Ko will handily beat Jung and Yoo if they meet. ..... From the Korean pairings over the past few months, we can already see that Yoo is being groomed for xd with Na as in China Masters or with some other girl. Lee is the best and youngest of the 4 and will remain in md only as he has accumulated too many injuries in the past from playing both md and xd. Jung is the oldest and got married past year and looks like he'll retire after OG. (Not sure about this but iirc he still has some military time to serve.) So that leaves Ko, who is better than Yoo in terms of power, defense etc, who is the best fit for Lee. ...... IMO this pair could be easily in the top 3 md, as Cai/Fu will likely retire after OG, Guo/Chai is no match, Koo/Tan is in stasis, BoMo is getting on in age and struggling, none of the INA pairs are consistent enough. My $0.02.
Reasons for split: 1. Pairing with more experienced partner temporarily for guidance in difficult games (i.e. look towards OG 2012) 2. Pending retirement 3. Practice for Thomas cup 4. Hedge your bets in case one of the players gets injured in the OG run up. 5. Keep other teams guessing on game plans.
I am not sure about whole of your hypothesis, especially in bold font. That became question in my mind after a bit of time. LYD will still play with HJE (still did not see sign the pair will end in near time), even (I am sorry) I have to say that this pair do not have yet extraordinary prospect like when they were junior. Yoo plays XD, but I think he will be still prospected in MD. More than 50% Korean MD (also WD) players also play XD, do not they? IMHO, Ko is actually more promising in XD than LYD and Yoo.
For a year or two, Lee and Jung were pretty dismal in their showing, as Lee sustained elbow injury and shoulder injury consecutively. In all his games in the past 2 yrs, you can see either his elbow or his shoulder heavily strapped, as can be seen when Lee took off his shirt to throw into the audience when they won the recent China Masters md final. For an athlete who just turned only 23 nine days ago to already have so many injuries is not a good sign of longevity. It either means he's training wrong or playing too much. That's why you don't see him doing both md and xd disciplines for the past yr or two. ........ Ko is for sure better than Yoo in either md or xd. But I think the Koreans best chance for a top winning team lies with Lee and as Jung will be leaving that's why they are focusing on finding the best partner for Lee, which happens to be Ko. And that leaves Yoo out to do xd duty.
Sort of off topic here, but what happened to the Kim Ki Jung/Kim Sa Rang partnership, that was winning everything ? Weren't they both quite young ? I notice that Kim Ki Jung is playing with Shin Baek Choi. But where is Kim Sa Rang ? Also, why are Jung/Yoo #5 and Lee/Ko had to qualify ? This puzzled me... I would say though, that Korea from a doubles point of view have many players that are very useful, and probably have more depth at the top ATM, than China.
I don't think KO is better then YOO. I find that KO is more like JJS, they both seem to be heavy hitters from what I observed. So that's why I think they want to pair LYD with KO and see how that works out. YOO to me seems to be good in all aspects, he hits hard, defends well and plays more tactical then KO. In the previous games I watched, most of the oppositions target KO and it seems like KO makes a lot of mistakes. I am not saying KO is bad, I mean his really good, but I don't think KO is better then YOO is MD maybe just XD.
I do not know what happen to Kim Ki Jung / Kim Sa Rang, but I think pair Shin Baek Choi / Kim Ki Jung is also promising. Defeated Kindra in Taipei, and almost upset CY / FHF. Lee/Ko have had already world ranking points from US GPG and Canada GP. it's below number #30, so that they must start from qualifying round Jung/Yo just start to pair in this tournament. As they do not have yet world ranking points, use points from their original pair which is quite high to be seeded
i disagree, i don't think we can say whos a better player, it very hard to judge especially among these 4, and it doesn't matter. They are all up there skill wise. To me, its who compliments who better. what i'm saying is that Ko and Yoo are proven and doing so well together recently and imo they are 'the pair' to watch. so breaking up a top team just because JJS is retiring to try and form another makes no sense. So far, I think what Cheung said is likely: -Practice for Thomas cup -Hedge your bets in case one of the players gets injured in the OG run up.
I think Korean team made a good choice to experiment with their top 2 teams while it's still early until OG2012. I believe they want to secure their top 2 doubles in the final in OG2012 just like in 2004 to secure Korea a gold medal, hence why they are focusing merely on just LYD/JJS and KSH/YYS. LYD/KSH seems like a possible pairing, and with age, Jung Jae Sung being almost at the peak of his physical ability might retire after OG2012 next year. So I can see this pairing working in the future hence they both did well so far winning US Open. As for YYS, I see him combine with Shin Baek Choel (a heavy smasher and talented player), or he may focus entirely on the MXD. But for YYS/JJS pairing, I don't see it working so far, but with training I think it will do ok. YYS will need to be able to command the net as well as LYD if not better and set up for JJS to smash if this pair is to bring back good results. I see nothing wrong with Korea sticking with original pairings of LYD/JJS or KSH/YYS for OG or other major events, but it doesn't hurt to test things out in a relatively minor event. But I hope they do not switch too often least not 6 months prior to a major tournament if they want to win.
