Yes. the matches ended just 5 minutes short from 3 am. I wonder will i stay that late if im still in UK. Yep I'll definitely stay glued on the seat
. I am a fan of both Yip Pui Yin and Ratchanok Inthanon, but I know that Ratchanok will do better than Yippy late at night. I know that they will agree with me. .
Whoa, so many big upset in R/32, some seeded players/pairs have been tumbled : 01) MS => 4th seed Peter Hoeg Gade lost to local hope Rajiv Ouseph, this could be last AE for the Great Dane, sad farewell... 02) WS : Sung Ji-hyun took revenge from last week quarterfinal defeat in Mulheim, this time she stopped 2nd seed Wang Xin 03) MD : 4th seed Korean #2 Ko Sung-hyun/Yoo Yeon Seong succumbed to unseeded TPE pair Fang Chieh Min/Lee Sheng Mu 04) WD : China scratch pair Ma Jin/Zhong Qianxin disposed 4th seed Japan's Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa 05) XD : Cheer for home fans as their fave Chris Adcock/Imogen Bankier did it once again to overcome WC and top-seed Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei -- huge upset of the day Other upsets in this category are 7th seed KOR's Lee Young-dae/Ha Jung-eun and 6th seed THA's Sudket/Saralee lost straight-sets to JPN's Shoji Sato/Shizuka Matsuo and KOR's Ko Sung-hyun/Eom Hye-won respectively. -
KSH/YYS are not performing up to the notch lately after a defeat from Hong Wei/Shen Ye at Germany Grand Prix last week.. Zhang Nan / Zhao Yun lei defeat in the first is a huge upset for CBA & their fans, of course. In contrast i am feeling excited of their defeat, i don't really like this pair at all ..
Zhang/Zhao do have problem playing against European players on European grounds. Zhang is not strong enough mentally. I am starting to worry about their prospect in OG2012 since it will be played in London.
Seven seeds got knocked out in R1, WOW! And the greatest casualties came from China, the full list being: XD#1 Nan ZHANG/Yunlei ZHAO (CHN) WS#2 Xin WANG (CHN) MS#4 Peter Hoeg GADE (DEN) MD#4 Sung Hyun KO/Yeon Seong YOO (KOR) WD#4 Misuki FUJII/Reika KAKIIWA (JPN) XD#6 Sudket PRAPAKAMOL/Saralee THOUNGTHONGKAM (THA) XD#7 Yong Dae LEE/Jung Eun HA (KOR) And a last goodbye here to perhaps the oldest competitor Peter Gade, at 35, before his swan song at the August London Olympics. Will the UK win the XD title through Chris Adcock(ENG) and Imogen Banker(SCO) who slayed the No.1 CHN seed? This will be a tremendous reward for England for organising the AE as well as the forthcoming greatest sports show on earth, the Summer Olympics.
They just prove to me why China/LYB shoudnt expect a cleansweep in London. The whitewash back in 2011 was merely a one-off thing. We will see how Xu Chen and Majin progresses in this tournament, a test to see how they cope with pressure being this tight situation when their top compatriots are defeated unexpectedly. WANG XIN OMG ?! I had a feeling she will lose this round because her game is totally out of control and harmless against stroke players like Sung Jihyun and Schenk. Obviously her defeat in Mulheim was not an act to stay fit for the next tournament.. CBA should consider putting Wang Shixian as the second seed instead of Wang Xin because her loss gives leeway for non-CHN opponents in the lower half draw to progress easily at least to the SF stage. She has choked a lot of times as a second seed in a few tourneys last year. It's a major concern CBA must look into. Oh NO Gade is done YIPPEE !!. That hopeless piece of .... Chen Jin finally got better of WWK last night. Why didnt he produce the same performance last week in Mulheim. Right, Taufik must beat him to ensure Lin Dan doesnt do a walkover in QF.. A pretentious defeat to Chong Wei Feng is too hard to convince/unacceptable the fans, so 100 percent sure Lin Dan has to win this OR face the wrath of BWF!
Absolutely NO ahaha ! We will know they dont have what it takes to win a major title...They are just party poopers, not winners. I shouldnt expect anything less from Yoo/Jang when playing against them. All the joy and celebrations for creating a major upset will be put to silence very soon. Nope, they cant win it. Statistically, they dont have any winning advantage against any pair...so happened ZZ lost to them plus it was tight match on their turf to prove that it's another one-off thing like Kevin Cordon's accomplishment. Nahhhhh I am just gonna take this defeat with pinch of salt but not thinking so far ahead assuming they will move on to win the title. that's too farfetched hahahaha
Maybe Z/Z lost to A/B on purpose.. For one thing, Zhao needs to concentrate on WD as Z/Q is more than 15000 points behind Yu/Wang. Secondly, if Z/Z is relegated to WR No. 2 in XD and Xu/Ma is promoted to WR No. 1, Z/Z don't need to face Fischer/Pedersen during Olympics until the final, if they were to meet. Xu/Ma have a slightly better chance against F/P since Ma doesn't need to play WD in the Olympics. Having Xu/Ma fight against F/P in the semi-final is better for Z/Z.
All England Badminton: Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier win BBC Sport 8 March 2012 YONEX ALL ENGLAND OPEN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS Venue: National Indoor Arena, Birmingham Date: 6-11 March Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier fought back to beat the world number ones at the All England Open Championships. The British number ones beat Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 16-21 21-19 21-19 to reach the second round in Birmingham. It was the duo's second win over the Chinese pair this year.
Badminton-Gade makes sad farewell after marathon day BBC Sport Thu, 08 Mar 04:36:00 2012 * First day's play takes nearly 17 hours * Ex-champion Gade beaten at 2.20 a.m. * British pair sink Chinese world champions Former title winner Peter Gade of Denmark proved the highest profile loser on a marathon day's play at the All England championships which ended in the early hours of Thursday morning, nearly 17 hours after the first shuttle was struck. Observers and media struggled to recall a later finish in a major tournament and there was criticism from fourth seed Gade after his three-game loss to English champion Rajiv Ouseph. The duo started their match 70 minutes past midnight with Ouseph triumphing 17-21 21-16 21-14 to claim what could be regarded as the biggest win of his career. Gade, 35, All England champion in 1999, said: "No matter how crazy it sounds we sort of expected this could happen because we saw the way they planned the tournament. Thirty-five minutes for each game, that's impossible. "It speaks for itself. It should not be possible this could happen at a big tournament." He added: "When people ask why are we not in the same league as tennis and golf this is why. It would never happen in golf, it would never happen in tennis. It's not a professional way for the players or the spectators." When the last point was won in a women's singles match involving China's world number two Wang Xin, there were around 20 people watching. Wang also bowed out in a contest that lasted just 31 minutes, beaten 21-8 21-13 by South Korean Sung Ji-hyun. SAD END It was a sad end to Gade's long and distinguished All England career. He had been struggling with a foot injury which cast doubt whether he would be able to play the match but Ouseph was a worthy winner. The Dane is retiring in the next year after playing just a couple more tournaments following the Olympics. He said: "I had a good feeling (earlier) but this was not my dream. I have so many good memories here and to finish off beaten in the first round at 0220 is not what I had hoped." Organisers had attempted to stage 80 matches on the four courts with the final game estimated to start at 2120 but were undone by a glut of three-set matches, one lasting one hour and 27 minutes. Big names like titleholder Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan started their matches very late into the evening with the Chinese finishing after midnight. But at least they made it safely through on a day that will live long in the memory, too long perhaps. Lee, the Malaysian world number one, beat unseeded Chinese Wang Zhengming 21-16 21-11 to line up a match with talented Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. The Malaysian is seeking a third All England title in a row but as ever he will need to get past his old nemesis Lin, the Olympic and world champion. Lin, four-times an All England winner, kicked off his quest for a fifth title with a victory over India's Ajay Jayaram, the Chinese winning 21-18 21-15. Lin's compatriot Chen Long, seeded three, was stretched for a time by Tommy Sugiarto, son of 1983 world champion Icuk Sugiarto, but the Indonesian had to retire hurt with an injured foot with the scores level at one set apiece. It was possibly a relief for Chen who was beaten by Guatemalan outsider Kevin Cordon in the first round of the world championships at Wembley Arena last August. Cordon could not repeat his giant-killing in Birmingham, beaten 25-23 21-17 by ex-Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. Home fans who stayed until nearly midnight were rewarded when unseeded mixed doubles duo Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier downed world champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 16-21 21-19 21-19. It was sweet revenge for the Britons, who had lost to the Chinese in the world championships final at Wembley in August. The victory prompted a euphoric Adcock to race half way round the hall, arms aloft. He told reporters: "Imogen is so amazingly good at the net so that is always the plan. When she's serving and playing with touch at the net there's not many girls in the world, if any, that can rival her." (When the new 21 points scoring was first introduced, many badminton fans were not happy because they think the game was too short without long rallies. They preferred the old 15 points that could last a long time for a match. In Singapore and elsewhere, there were much critcism on the long hours that often went past midnight and those without their own transport would have to leave the badminton hall like half an hour to one hour before the last train left the station. But it seems the new system has caught up with the old in terms of the very long matches that caused play to extend way beyond the offficial schedule. PG has rightly said that the organisers were a bit short sighted and did not do their calculations properly. Hopefully, more time will be given for each match in future so as not to dampen interest further.)
They had one famous pair ( Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms) not too long ago in 2005: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_England_Open_Badminton_Championships Below is the list of the past winners in this 21st century. [TABLE="class: wikitable"] [TR] YearMen's singles Mixed doubles[/TR] [TR] [TD]2011[/TD] [TD] Lee Chong Wei[/TD] [TD] Wang Shixian[/TD] [TD] Mathias Boe Carsten Mogensen[/TD] [TD] Wang Xiaoli Yu Yang[/TD] [TD] Xu Chen Ma Jin[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2010[/TD] [TD] Lee Chong Wei[/TD] [TD] Tine Rasmussen[/TD] [TD] Jonas Rasmussen Lars Paaske[/TD] [TD] Yu Yang Du Jing[/TD] [TD] Zhang Nan Zhao Yunlei[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2009[/TD] [TD] Lin Dan[/TD] [TD] Wang Yihan[/TD] [TD] Cai Yun Fu Haifeng[/TD] [TD] Zhang Yawen Zhao Tingting[/TD] [TD] He Hanbin Yu Yang[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2008[/TD] [TD] Chen Jin[/TD] [TD] Tine Rasmussen[/TD] [TD] Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae[/TD] [TD] Lee Hyo-jung Lee Kyung-won[/TD] [TD] Zheng Bo Gao Ling[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2007[/TD] [TD] Lin Dan[/TD] [TD] Xie Xingfang[/TD] [TD] Koo Kien Keat Tan Boon Heong[/TD] [TD] Wei Yili Zhang Yawen[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2006[/TD] [TD] Jens Eriksen Martin Lundgaard Hansen[/TD] [TD] Gao Ling Huang Sui[/TD] [TD] Zhang Jun Gao Ling[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2005[/TD] [TD] Chen Hong[/TD] [TD] Cai Yun Fu Haifeng[/TD] [TD] Nathan Robertson Gail Emms[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2004[/TD] [TD] Lin Dan[/TD] [TD] Gong Ruina[/TD] [TD] Jens Eriksen Martin Lundgaard Hansen[/TD] [TD] Kim Dong-moon Ra Kyung-min[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2003[/TD] [TD] Muhammad Hafiz Hashim[/TD] [TD] Zhou Mi[/TD] [TD] Sigit Budiarto Candra Wijaya[/TD] [TD] Zhang Jun Gao Ling[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2002[/TD] [TD] Chen Hong[/TD] [TD] Camilla Martin[/TD] [TD] Ha Tae-kwon Kim Dong-moon[/TD] [TD] Kim Dong-moon Ra Kyung-min[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]2001[/TD] [TD] Pullela Gopichand[/TD] [TD] Gong Zhichao[/TD] [TD] Tony Gunawan Halim Heryanto[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
This year, the AE organisers probably dictated by one who failed in Arithmetic. Thought it only happens to BAM. Maybe BAM s Arithmetic has improved and AE took over their place. How dense can they be. Most evenly matched opponents will go to 3 games nowadays. One year of historical data would support that.
Who is the one you are referring to ? Chen Jin ? hehe Chen Hong dont deserve to win in 2005 also because Lin Dan has to withdraw to let him qualify for the world championships.
