The main reason for badminton being tagged the fastest racquet in the world, is shown below ... Shallow smash from Variella, with hardly any elevation .... Tago trying to break down Sony's stubborn defences ..... Excellent elevation from Jordan, ready to destroy the famed Danish defence .... Angled attack from CPS, sacrificing a bit of power ..... This one, a more direct attacking form .....
Hahaha.. that is really ugly purple shoes of Singapore girls . Especially with orange and white outfit. That is Shinta M Sari, isn't she?
Yup, hideous looking shoes. No offence, Shinta, in case you are reading this ..... but you would have looked better with more striking colours to match the Dutch-like Orange shirt.
Queen of the Weak Knees ..... Just so you know, in badminton, it is always the players with long term and never-properly-healed injury problems that tend to have the strongest mental strength. Because they have to fight with their bodies to do things their physique sometimes refuse to do. These players typically have limited success in the International Scene, yet often times their fighting qualities make them more worthy of mention than the top players. One of the best examples is Sony Dwi Kuncoro for Indonesia, the best mental mind for his country by far. If he had Simon Santoso's physique or Taufik Hidayat's tricks, he could have been a LD/LCW equivalent. In Malaysia, our equivalent of Sony DK would be badminton queens with weak knees ..... The previous Malaysian queen of the weak knees have since retired and, err, married a certain Superstar Sports Personality, so now she could only sit in the stands ....... .... but that does not mean she does not have a worthy successor. No sirree ..... So, for Malaysia, we have ..... Malaysia's new queen of the weak knees, Miss Goh Liu Ying (still playing with injury in this tournament). But hey, she won the Asian title while limping on court in 2010.
Hopefully GLY will not end up like previous queen of weak knees from INA, the Indonesian darling: Maria Kristin Yulianti.
I would rate Mateusiak/Zieba as a very good XD pair....the top 4 in Europe with Laybourn/Rytter-Juhl, Robertson/Emms and Fischer-Nielsen/Pedersen over the past decade. They are also one of the few pairs who could really scare top Chinese and Indonesian XD pairs during the times of Zhang/Gao, Xie/Zhang, Nova/Butet, and Flandy/Vita.
Finals Day Atmosphere ..... Where do we start? Outside, of course ...... Face of the Arena on finals day, 45 minutes from the start .... Note the guy with black specs, must be one of the special branch officers of the Royal Malaysian Police, wakakakaka. This band played on in the sweltering heat .... until the rain came to wash 'em away Badminton England's Citroens are not very popular in Malaysia, so this Toyota pickup becomes the, ahem, official car ...... Brisk sales of cheerleading "battlegear" ...... ..... eagerly snapped by this group of supporters from overseas .... yup, they couldn't stand the heat ..... The home team's "boss" posing with the crowd ... ..... while showing off his proud battle mantra ..... ..... as battle tactics are discussed with his lieutenants
Inside .... There is now a small dining area for Premier ticket holders as well as VIP entrance. So I decided to take a peek ..... But first, a message from the sponsors. Apparently, even the biggest Malaysian bank needs help ...... .... to pay for the endorsements, salaries and bonuses to these hungry tigers .... Welcome to the Premier Area, only Premier tags need apply .... .... but there's nothing much inside, just some snacks and drinks .... Now this, is the VIP area ..... by invitation only .... .... where security is placed to ensure nobody else can go in .... Within the walls of the VIP Area, are the hall of famers of Malaysian badminton ..... Notice this young guy with slightly long hair? Yup, I was once young and slim like him, during that time .... Of course, he never made it to the Olympics .... ...but his younger brother made sure of the family history, shouting in delight after nailing the Olympic bronze in Atlanta '96. Meanwhile, in the commentators area ...... .... Gill Clark was doing some tweaks on her antiquated microphone system ..... GC: "Err, hello! Need help. I think someone is stalking me ....."
As far as finals day goes, today was probably the shortest ever finals in Malaysia Super Series history. With no match going the distance, and at least 3 of the 5 matches more of one sided contests. Only the mixed doubles has some semblance of a tight contest, and even then, only at the tailend of game 2.
Women Singles Final .... The current World Junior Champion took a huge step forward by beating her more senior, taller, and more PAW-erful opponent .... The women's singles lineup ..... Umpire : "Remember, you are two sides of the same China, so play nice ....." TTY: "I will make your PAW-ers eat humble pie!" YX (thinking) : Damn!! She really is a typhoon ..... YX : Yee ha!!! Brought down the Typhoon! TPE Coach: "Oi! You are the typhoon, how come that tall tree brought you down?" TTY : "Coach, I tried to do the twister, but there's not enough pressure. This isn't the American MidWest ..." TTY: "Haa!!! Look who's gone down now!" TPE Coach: "Good work, now pack up and fly home to play the Nationals."
