Players in the spotlight and hall of fame in the Premier Open Era Lin Dan Wang Yihan Zhao Yunlei Lee Chong Wei Peter Gade for their outstanding achievements based on many factors...
Tough luck with LCW's injury, but congratulations to Lin Dan for his 5th title. After the match the two Chinese Coaches went to LCW to show concern about his injury. And the Malaysian crowd did not abandon their hero, they still shouted his name together with Lin Dan. Good sportsmanship, very much unlike this forum sometimes .......... wakakakaka. The atmosphere in the stadium this year was more energetic than last year - especially coming from Chinese and Malaysian supporters, sitting side by side and working up the Mexican Waves. Mixed Doubles and Men's Doubles provided some quality and heart stopping moments, though some unsportmanship conduct from both Thomas Laybourn and Tontowi Ahmad spoiled matters somewhat. Still, Indonesia has finally landed a title after almost, what, 9 years? Korea has shown that they are the frontrunners for the Men's Doubles Olympic title - although I still think Jung Jae Sung has not reached full power. But he sure does provide great spectacles with those desperate retrievals on his back.
BTW, where is LYB? In the past you could see him at the final matches but today I saw two coaches, one I believe was Xia Xuanze, and tho other one...not sure who he was. Is AE not prestigious enough for LYB to attend? Maybe he is moving up the corporate ladder and not having to get his hands dirty anymore
I love this year's edition of AllEngland tournament. More of the off court activities like KISS CAM. Trying to emulate NBA , NHL and NBL in making it more fun. However this may not work in other countries.
I am sure with the current position he is holding, he got more important functions to attend to like dinner with politicians, influential figures in the army.. I guess he wants to the next President of China..
I think those are not paid professional translators but simply volunteer students who wanted to see sport stars.
I wonder how these students get selected ...poor selection by BE apart from their disgraceful mismanagement of the event that led to Gade untimely exit...Shame on your Badminton England. Putting the tournament of proud history to shame...
you should not forget Indonesian supporters there! I could hear their voices from the speaker Indonesian community arranged an event to watch the All England together (low fees for student, and free accommodation!), there should be at least 30-50 Indonesian supporters there I didn't go because I have an essay due next week.. if not I would go there and cheer the Indonesian pair I didn't watch the XD match till the end, but did you hear Indonesian crowd said: HABISIN (finish them)? (like Indonesian tradition..)
Why didn't I put that fiver on Jung/Lee at the start... MD was very strange - excellent first game, followed by total disintegration of C/F in the next two. Fu's injury meant he couldn't play touch shots? He can't play them full stop! Tbh, I think J/L would have beaten TWO C/F pairs on that kind of form; I just hope they can reproduce it in London. The other matches were painfully uninteresting, but the results were a nice surprise (save LD/LCW).
Lin Dan asked LCW to swap shirt after the final. What he really saying was you may be still here next year but i certainly wouldn't be. Ladies And gentlemen , you have witnessed the last AE match between the two.
Don't worry about Wang Yihan. She will be one of the three going to olympics. I think this games was fixed even before it was played. The intention is clear from the chinese team. They want Li XueRui to overtake Saina so that they have more options. All credit to Li XueRui who played incredible badminton over the last two weeks. She is much more reliable and efficient than Chen Jin to claim the world fourth ranking. The true WS final between chinese players probably only happens in Olympics final like the one between Zhang Ning and Xia Xin Fang in 2008.
Yeah, too bad the match between the two best couldn't finish due to LCW injury... After 9 years empty handed, finally INA bagged a title from the prestigious AE Good tactical play showed by Towi/Liliyana meanwhile anti-climax performance by Danish XD. Third time lucky for Liliyana after two attempts failure
Whether or not the Z-Force contributed to his injury, it will be interesting to see if LCW continues to use it. Maybe the most hyped racquet of all time, Yonex has a big investment in the Z-Force.
I only managed to watch half of the Game 1 and incompleted Game 2. Although Lin Dan played with some unforced errors last night, his determination to win was there. His pace was quite fast especially in game 2. I just had a feeling that he was going to speed up and finishing the Game 2 as soon as possible. Then Lee Chong Wei decided to retire and stop Lin Dan to finish the game the way he wanted. Personally, I think Lee Chong Wei could still play if his opponent was not Lin Dan last night. During the games he felt the determination and the increasing pace of Lin Dan. He knew very well that he couldn't win game 2 and might lost very badly (likely under 10) with the injured right shoulder. I think it is a good decision to quit because the injury could get worse. I hope he could recover well in time for the olympics game.
LD's PR and sportmanship now is an improvement in huge leaps and bounds since his younger days. We can see from the first set that he too is human, sensitive to the pressures of competitive sport (maybe against LCW only) when he faltered on 2 low serves. Plus the exchange of T-Shirts initiated by LD shows that he respects LCW and treasures the fact that this maybe LCW's last AE participation.
