I agree that by the third set, the player might be slower from fatigue. A whole hour or non-stop movement is not the same as planned training. The players train with pro's, and in particular the chinese teams, these players get to spar against reigning world champs and olympic winners. But if they can play at the top level, I believe a "walkover" doesn't actually give the players that much advantage. In fact, not playing a game to ramp them up for ascending difficulty might even be disadvantageous. Given an hour or two to rest and get some food, possibly even slip in a good stretch and massage, I think ZN would be able to be physically rested enough for another match. However, to be able to play both disciplines, switch the thinking between the two events would be the trickier part to accomplish.
ZN/FHF certainly had an incredible week. Beating the Asian Games champions Ahsan/Setiawan, the World Champions Shin/Ko, and the World #1 Lee/Yoo. That's an incredible 3 game win streak. More importantly, they play a new style of Chinese MD that is oriented around movement and net play rather than just smashing. But can they keep it up? Last year LXL/QZH went on a similar run and then totally fell apart. Personally, I would like to see ZN play only MD. Let ZYL pair with Liu Cheng or Lu Kai in the XD.
The problem with LXL and QZH is that their game is all physical and u can see that QZH has gotten fatter and unfit, he cannot sustain that kind of all out attacking play. ZN and FHF is much more defensively stable with great counter attack that’s completely missing from other Chinese pairs… You look at CB/HW both sucks at the front and can barely turn any attack into a counter attack, CB is easily one of the most error prone players I’ve ever seen. They lift and lift waiting to get smashed and whenever CB tries to counter attack more often than not it is into the net. CY/LK… Cy is just too old and slow nowadays he cannot keep up while Lu Kai is too inconsistent as well. Cheng Liu/Kang Jun… again freaking so error prone, and everytime KJ is at the back they are basically gone because his smash is useless… he is like ultra error prone weak version of the younger cai yun. Cheng Liu has a very nice smash… but not much else. Liu Yuchen and Li Junhui… Li Junhui is like another Cai Biao with no net play and one hugeeeee smash that’s all… LYC has to do all the work in the partnership and he is still too raw… they may have potential or could be another huge flop. Personally I wanna see more of Wang Yilv, he looks very promising along with the other junior champs… Time to train up the new young pairs… with the flat attacking style of play IMO.
Although ZN/FHF are not exactly "new" since they are a 7 month old partnership, I have to say I was very impressed by their match against LYD/YYS. I have seen matches in their past and I was quite disappointed by the new pairing earlier in 2014, but it seems this is really the first time I've seen them really be competitive against the top pairs (Moe/Boe, LYD/YYS, SET/AHS). We were all looking for ZN to really fill the shoes of CY at the net and probably weren't pleased when they didn't have that many great results all year. But today, the way they played the final of the denmark open was just fabulous. There was fantastic counter attacking all around, great aggressive play, great interceptions at the net, accurate and great angled smashing. It's really now the flavor of men's doubles that's the most successful where there's less focus on having a huge smash (though it helps). Personally I think what ZN brings to this partnership that CY didn't is his capability at the back court, though I think we can agree that CY just barely edges out ZN at the net in terms of dominance. But this way the partnership isn't reliant on FHF being the smasher at the back to be successful and there is more equality in attacking capability at the back of the court. I saw numerous fantastic angles and variety from ZN's smashing that I never saw from CY (who primarily hit neutral drop shots and half smashes until he could rotate with FHF to take over the smashes).
IMHO, it was the defensive abilities of FHF/ZN that make them better than the rest of China MD. I have not seen China MD able to defend like they did. China MD always has strong attacks but defensively, this is the only pair who can do it
Wow, this pair completely dominated Ahsan/Setiawan and Yoo/Lee at Denmark Open. Speed, flat fast exchanges, smashes, they have everything. But ZN is playing the best I've ever seen him play, being able to play both front or back, I'd say even better than CY at his peak. And mid to front is where he dominated, with incredible leg speed and particularly hand speed to play lightning fast and tactically accurate passing shots that constantly had the KOR pair scrambling desperately. Fu/Zhang also won the upper hand in the all important service and return, gaining many points just in the first 3 shots alone. It's gonna be tough for ZN, though as now he and CBA have to decide whether he can withstand the physical rigors of playing both MD and XD disciplines with Fu and ZYL respectively tournament after tournament going forward into the next Olympic cycle.
AFAIK, Cai Yun is now focusing on guiding young team members (Lu Kai) as he is quite old and not capable of playing high level badminton in long period. Fu Haifeng is still having another chance at Rio 2016 and thus finding a right partner for him is important to China team.
Nowadays, nobody hits faster then 260 (consistently). I think it is the speed-mesuring machine that changed I think.
When hitting 250/260 kmph can do the job nicely , why hit harder? Every time you smash hard, you need a fraction of a second more to recover yourself for the return shot.
Very impressed by this pair. I had seen games before when Fu looked slightly disinterested but they were fantastic in the final. Constant pressure, great defence and aggressive attacks. Hopefully this will shake the MD up a bit.
I'm rather certain it's a mix - the speed measurement should have gotten more accurate or stayed the same (i.e. measure over a smaller travel distance, which would increase read speeds). But I've heard that shuttles got slower (with some pros complaining about it), and with tensions going up noticeably and rackets getting lighter, most guys actually sacrifice power these days. I guess almost all pros could go 10-20km/h harder if they strung for optimal power, but that would very likely decrease control, and dampen the feeling overall. Also, the halls have gotten bigger, with the fastest tournament I have seen footage of taking place in a fairly small venue in Madrid, and today's SS/PSS events being stage in huge arenas where there's significantly more draft. Personally I feel a lower ceiling will increase shuttle speeds, although that might be subjective and untrue for all I know - I can't find a scientific reason for it Personally I believe it's mainly bwf trying to control the game - so that it's not getting too fast, similar to how table tennis made the balls bigger and forbade hidden serves to make the game more viewer-friendly.
Winning consistently still seems to be an issue for the pair. Losing in the R32 of the French Open, albeit only after a closely fought 3rd set.
would like to see combination of zhang nan and liu cheng (maybe after the Olympics) . fu is getting older, his smash are not like it used to be. however I still want to see fu and zhang play together in rio. good luck to them.
Yes, and unfortunately Fu is quite error prone these days, and he makes even more errors the harder he tries.
If I'm not mistaken, Fu Haifeng became more error-prone on AE Finals Day. In the penultimate rounds and earlier, he wasn't so. I'd put it down to his feeling more self-conscious and letting the pressure of the burden of expectation get to him as the senior and more experienced of the two with an illustrious MD record. Just look at the respective scorelines and how they took out Ahsan/Setiawan.
