LYD is getting better at the front. KKK was not a great net player before. But now he is among the most dangerous front guy.
LYD is improving now compare to last time..must be the coach factor... so mas md must watch out with the korean pairs.
erm...sorry ya...i think lcw will be the best frontmen...look at how he dominate the net today against pg...
limsy, you do need to slow down and read the title of the thread before posting. For instance, this is about the best frontman in doubles. Men's Doubles, to be precise. If the attempt is to be funny, please go to this thread. It has had nearly one hundred thousand views so far. A bit more won't hurt
U must be kidding....Cai Yun was outplayed by Hendra Setiawan almost everytime when these 2 players sparred against each other. Right now, I think Lee Yong Dae still has the edge, followed by Hendra Setiawan.
LOL. Don't mind me. The opinion came from a person who is totally biased, subjective, and knows nothing about badminton.
i re-watched this amazing video. I noticed the score was 14-0. The athen MD gold medalists got owned by tony and halim. Pure talent. Anybody remember the final score?
They completely destroyed KDM and HTK on the first game by 15-0, and the second game was like 15-11 or something. KDM and HTK was the defending champion but the stand no change in front of the peaked Tony. Just a side note that KDM also played mix final on the same day against GL/ZJ earlier and went to rubbers. And he end up losing both titles. Anyhow, I still think KDM rocks.
Agreed. And what amazed me most is that LYD is not only limited to the front court, but also able to smash very hard at the back, and heck he is only 19.
Well for me it has to be Park Joo Bong, closely followed by Kim Dong Moon. It seemed that Park laid the foundations and Kim Dong Moon carried it on. What made Park so good was that he was able to win at mixed doubles as well. Same as Kim Dong Moon. These two players dominated mixed doubles over many years with their partners. The reason why is because they were so good at the mid and front court. Park had the ability to read the game quicker than everyone else, and the god given talent to finish off almost every rally at the net. It is very rare to see anyone dominating him at the net, in fact i can't remember anyone doing it consistently. Park and Kim Moon Soo were a great combination, and many times just blew the opposition away, and this was in a time of some great pairs, such as Li Yongbo/Tian Bingyi, The Sideks and Gunawan/Hartono. That was a golden era for Men's doubles, which has not been seen since. If you paired Park and Kim against Ricky and Rexy, i think Park and Kim would win. If you remember the 1993 Surdiman Cup final, Park and Kim came out of their mens doubles retirement and played Ricky and Rudy Gunawan. Park and Kim destroyed them. and don't forget that Gunawan and Ricky then went on to win the individual world championships the very next week. Had Park and Kim entered then they would surely could have won. The emergence of Chandra Wijaya and Sigit carried on the mantle, but Sigit appeared to be a bit inconsistent. Tony Gunawan paired up with Chandra, and this was a much more consistent pair, with Wijaya being a perfect foil for Tony Gunawan to express his skills at the net. This is what makes a good front man, you have to have a partner who will do the power play at the back to set things up. All the best men's doubles pairs had this combination. Park had Kim Moon Soo, Kim Dong Moon had Ha Tae Kwon, Tony Gunawan had Chandra etc. There are some exceptions to this general rule, where both players in the pair are equal at the front and rear, but not that many. If you take todays pairs you have Fu and Cai, but let's face it, If you have the power of Fu at the back, whoever plays at the net will have good opportunities to show off their net skills. For me, Cai Yun is not in the same league as Park Joo Bong. In fact, in my opinion, if you had Park Joo Bong and Kim Moon Soo at their peak, playing right now against the current best in the world, they would beat every single one of them. You could put Park up against any of the current front men, and there would be no competition. Many of you will disagree with this, but the standard of badminton that Park was able to achieve over 20 years ago would still be more than good enough today.
^^Interesting insights..^^ (just adding a couple sens)... ..i would agree that the standard of yesteryears or even goldenyears of MD, arguably, "would still be more than good enough today." In a sense, yes, they've built that "foundation" or layed out the "ground work" for today's talents. But IMO, the speed and power of today's players are quite different as well. Have you seen the plays/videos/matches of some of today's new MD players?? The likes of the adorable and all-girls fave Lee Yong Dae or the always calm and poised Hendra Setiawan or the flashy and multi-faceted hairdo Koo Kien Keat?? I think the game itself probably has become a bit faster and with players able to infuse more power into the game... I haven't seen much of PJB and KDM in action, but i believe they were special. But at the same time, i think we might see a new special talent for KOR today in Lee Yong Dae (and he's still very young). It's not a coincidence all of them are Korean players as well. The bit about Tony G. He was partnered with Candra because Sigit was suspended by IBF (if not for that, i don't know if they would become partners). But i would agree the partnership was probably Tony's and Candra's best. Tony also partnered with Halim and Rexy, briefly, and they became good combinations as well. I think Tony G. and Kim Dong Moon would probably fall into the same category, in terms of overall accomplishments and talent, if not for Tony's lack of international success playing XD. Too bad KDM stopped his professional playing career a bit short. Anyway, i'm sure those are the good 'ol times and we're enjoying the current batch of players. Who knows, in the future there could be more talented MD players to shine and maybe make their own "era".