Park Joo Bong. Kim Dong Moon. Maybe Chris Adcock - Chris does relatively well by blocking across the net.
maybe Zhang Nan is trying to follow the path of LYD!! Win a gold medal in XD in the first Olympic, and then pursue a second gold medal in MD in the second!! hope Zhang Nan has figured out how to use ADAMS!!
this is the next pair of MD that I will love to see they excel.. Hopefully this pair will last till the next olympics...
I think this will be the top MD team from China. Zhang Nan plays MD really creatively and differently, so its fun to watch him. He likes to dominate the net and set up Fu Haifeng. For a guy that hasn't competed in MD for basically 3 years...to just pick up a racket and already be a top 5 pair in the world is remarkable. Once he figures out all the things with Fu, he'll be a real contender.
Are you sure? Although Zhang Nan's main discipline is not MD, he has featured in MD quite regularly (6 tourneys a year) in the past 3 years (albeit with less-talented partners): 2013 (6 tourneys) - with Chai Biao (Korea, AE, WC), with Qiu Zihan (Malaysia), with Li Gen (Macau & Dutch) 2012 (6 tourneys) - with Chai Biao (Thomas Cup, China Masters, Denmark, French, China), with Li Gen (Thomas Cup, Macau) 2011 (6 tourneys) - with Chai Biao (SSF), Tao Jiaming (China Masters, China, Hong Kong), Xu Chen (Korea, BAC) And predicting them to be a top 5 pair in the World is just early based on the results over the past 3 tourneys. I will wait for half a year more to see whether they can really be counted as one of CHN's pair for the Rio Olympics 2016.
It's true that he's played a few MD tournaments a year. But most of them it seems like he didn't even practice for them. There's always a strange circumstance. either 1) He is paired with a new and random partner (usually a far inferior partner like Li Gen) and it looks like they haven't even practiced together or 2) in the WC in 2013 ZN only qualified to play the WC last minute. I remember he was playing a american GP tournament when he suddenly pulled out because BWF sent him notice that he qualified with CB for the WC. Again...they didn't even have time to practice. So what I mean is that he hasn't done hard training, worked out strategies, planned out tactics. Most of his MD is just very sudden. I mean, even the All England 2014 he didn't even qualify, and made it into the draw last minute off the reserve list. He couldn't have even had proper preparation for it. So now, for the first time it looks like he's getting time to carefully plan, strategize, and make a real partnership with Fu.
Zhang Nan offers a different approach to dominating the net. Soft play on service receive to play the net shot at sharp angles instead of trying to push down the middle lane. He's not the strongest, fastest, but in my opinion one of the must tactically sound players on the circuit. His shot placements, and tactical awareness is simply outstanding. Even saying that ZN is not the best physically, he's not weak or slow either. His shots are simply put a highly effective form, smash with speed and angle, soft shot that sets your partner up. He's a prime example for being a well trained athlete who possess not one single skill that stands out, but his excellence in being an all round player is his "special skill" or flair. His tactical awareness, and his unwillingness to play the fast drive game that makes current men's double fast and furious, might be what sets the new pairing apart.
CY/FHF's pairing worked well with FHF being a the hammer from the back of the court and CY dominating the rest. ZN's pairing needs some work with FHF coz they play differently together due to various skills and it seems like FHF is improving his non-smashing plays. I think ZN should try to replace CY's role coz FHF is good where he was and was winning while he was there.
Totally agree with your points. This pair will be deadly if FHF has the stamina/strength to last throughout the grueling match. At the Swiss final (FHF/ZN vs HW/CB), I observed that FHF was kind of running of out steam in the 2nd game. If they play as 2nd MD in Thomas Cup, this will be a sure point for China... boleh?
Zhang Nan's approach to net play is surely very different. He almost never lifts and likes to play hairpin shots or pushes. But 1 thing i would like to see him change is that he is a bit TOO eager at times to get to the net. That makes FHF do almost all of the hard smashing work. Zhang Nan should feel comfortable to do some smashing as well. After all, he does all the smashing in his XD. He seems intimidated to smash in the MD.
I also notice that FHF doesn't seem to smash as hard as he used to. He only hits into the 260km/hr range these days. I think this is smart, its enough to win points and he wants to prolong his career into 2016. He seems to be more relaxed and at ease. Not straining himself to put more power into his smash.
If you look carefully, youll see that FHF started these improvements a long time ago. My guess is that he just feels more comfortable going to the net with ZN, whereas with CY he feels the need to go to the back as soon as he gets a chance. I also dont think the pairing would work with that 'classic' approach alone, the service situation and flat game are too important these days. I think playing primarily with Fu at the front, but being very interchangeable in their positions is the way to go for them.
I've always thought that the concept of pro athletes getting tired after one match a bit iffy. On a typical day, the chinese athletes do a morning session for skills, afternoon session with matches, and then some no racket physical training (just from watching some youtube videos of their interviews). Sure they play fast in a match, but i'm sure they train just as hard as they play a match, or at least at a relatively fast pace. Do they really have to conserve energy in a MD match just to play well in XD? Also, regarding physicality, men are typically (and to quote daft punk) "harder better faster stronger". I honestly don't think athletes of their caliber need to save any juice for their second match of the day. If ZYL can consistently play 2 matches a day and still win both, why can't ZN? Sure the guy works harder, but even LYD, KSH and a wealth of korean men's doubles players have proven they can work in two disciplines and be world+olympic champs. Some would also say that doubles is a lot faster than singles, but you also get two players cover a full court, whilst singles players cover a full court by themselves. Just a thought to ponder upon, and it'd be interesting to hear other people's opinions on this.
Well I think that Zhang Nan probably doesn't expend that much energy in his matches. He doesn't rely on a huge smash to win points. If you watch Xu Chen, sometimes he looks totally exhausted after just 2 sets in XD where he does almost all the hard work smashing from the baseline. My best guess is that ZN/FHF pulled out so that ZN can mentally and tactically prepare against natsir/ahmad. They lost pretty badly the last time, so CBA may be worried about the state of their top XD pair.
training and playing a real match is a different things... to win a match, pro players need to be on top of the physical & mental abilities because their opponents are pro too... of cause, these pro can play day & night but not 100% focus and most likely not at top speed & power if a players face a lesser player, there will be no problem for them to whack morning till night, but to play equally good players, that's quite impossible even in one tight match, i noticed, players getting slower in game 3, making more mistake due to mental and physical fatigue.
