It is so unusual that China has no ladies singles in waiting. Do they have a couple of ladies singles players about to explode on to the scene? Are they a victim of their own success and have become complacent? Has modern China finally caught up and the old system and attitude can no longer apply to China's single child youths? Or are we seeing a natural, statistical blip? And we will get a regression to the mean (and the mean for China is pretty high)? Can't quite see Liu Xin being the one to take over the mantle. She a dependable player but doesn't have that spark to take it to the top. Sun Yu I reserve judgement for the time being.
My own view on that is that 1) the recruitment method have changed in recent years. Because of improved economical conditions, parents do not accept easily this career. In the past children would not choose themselve to do that, but today to become a pro childs have to personnaly opt for it. This reduce greatly the pool of players to select from. 2) in the recent past, young WS were reaching top level and then exploded. Only a few players did otherwise (of course ZN and XXF). This is still more or less the case, but it got slightly better as WYH and WSX are still around, and LXR still doing fine. Perhaps the coaches changed their mind on their managment method and do not pressurize the players as much as before. Therefore, we see from time to time good performances of the two Wangs, and then they glide into mediocre performances.
LYB just can't win. Winning gets criticized. Losing gets criticized. While I am no fan of LYB, I feel for him. LYB already said that he will only pay attention to the cups and the Olympics. Let's just see what happens come May 1. There have been many glaring problems such as injuries to all top WS players during pre-WC training, the drought in WS titles, confusions in WD pairings, weak second tier MS players, etc. However, if the team win at least four golds at Rio and all cups before then, LYD would have fulfilled his promise. Fewer SS titles for the Chinese team may be disappointing to some fans, myself included, but you have to say that may be good for the sport.
LXR burst onto the scene and start winning titles during 2012 olympic cycle.. previously her performances were mediocre. Let's see what will happen when the olympic qualifying period starts
This I agree, hits the nail on the head. Originally, among the 2nd tier CHN WS players, I was once quite impressed with and excited about Yao Xue, apart from the junior He Bingjiao who understandably has to bide her time. Just when I thought YX was about to make her break taking some notable scalps, viz. J Schenk, Saina , Wang YH, TaiTY, in the last two years and winning her maiden title at the MAS GPG'14, she started to show indifferent form characterized by a good attack but weak defence and too many loose shots, I began to lose faith in her. At age 24 now, it's still not too late for her to tighten and raise her game as she gains in experience and matures. Imho, I think she is talented but just too temperamental - reminds me of Tine Baun and Juliane Schenk - a trait which I regard as a weakness holding her back. Nevertheless, I hope YX can be like TB and JS who both started to play to their true potential as they aged and mellowed, that is reined in their temperamental character, as well as tapped into their cumulative experience and growing maturity. We'll see.
WYH has too many injuries. I don't know if she can last till the summer of 2016. We don't know the extent of LXR's injury right now and how she is recovering. She is an unknown at this stage. For WSX, I doubt LYB will give her a second chance. She still cannot smash. If anyone of the above three were to suffer a serious injury this year, Sun Yu can still have a shot for one of the three places within the one-year qualification period. LYB will choose two among the three in July 2016. But whether Sun Yu will be one of the chosen two is too early a question for now.
Sun Yu has a good draw at the Swiss Open. A win there would secure her a place on the fast track. The senior players should just rest up for the Olympic qualification period.
CHN participants for the next three superseries: IND: Luo/Luo, Yu Xiaohan/Ou Dongni, Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua MAS: Yu/Wang, Luo/Luo, Tian Qing/Xia Huan, Yu Xiaohan/Ou Dongni, Bao Yixin/Tang Jinhua SIN: Yu/Wang, Ma Jin/Huang Yaqiong, Tian Qing/Xia Huan, I wonder if CBA is strongly considering breaking up Tian/Zhao to let ZYL focus on playing XD. Also no Tang Yuanting :crying:
After their AE performance, BYX/TYT is basically a lock going forward. BYX/TJH play together just to maintain their ranking points for the WC. Yes, I guess the plan is to ease ZYL out of WD. There is absolutely no need to risk/burden her with playing two disciplines. I wouldn't worry about TYT. Her future looks bright. I look forward to the performance of ODN/YXH at IO and MO. Their fate with the Olympics may be decided by these two tournaments.
CHN MS is lacking a dependable MS3. Tian Houwei just got booted out by Sakai K at the Swiss Open today, yet another disappointing outing for him. So far he hasn't lived up to expectations which means CHN MS has to count on Lin Dan and Chen Long while leaving their MS3 somewhat vulnerable in the upcoming Sudirman Cup. I'm hoping Xue Song can rise soon enough to fill the 'void'. At the same time, how about giving Qiao Bin a chance to prove himself, CBA?
Having ZYL/TQ as the third pair rather than the second pair is better for everybody in both the XD and WD disciplines. ZYL/TQ should be a backup pair just in case there is any injury with the first or second pair. That, I think, is the only way ZYL can continue to play in both XD and WD from now till Rio.
China don't let their players do 3 tournaments in a row. Interesting. World ranking date used for seeding is 23 July Bao and Tang will lose a lot of points up to 23 July - the points from last years Swiss Open, Singapore open and Uber Cup will drop out. After the Singapore Open, the main ranking tournaments will be China Masters (GPG) Badminton Asia Championships (ranking points?) Sudirman Cup Australian Open Indonesian Open US Open (GPG) Taipei Open (GPG) Enough for Bao and Tang together to maintain their ranking?
Qiao Bin is extremely strong right now, continuously beat Chen Long, Wang ZM convincingly with two 3:0s, unfortunately, he would not have much chance to play.
They may be thinking qualification points only. That would only include up to Asia Championships. There is no way that they can get into top 8. So they are looking at getting in as 3 out of 24 (but there are three pairs ahead of them) or from the reserve list. If they are not too far down in the rankings, getting promoted from the reserve list is quite possible.
There is no need to get chicken little about the WS situation. There is no question that mistakes were made to get them into the current jam. However, the all important Olympics qualification is still two months away with Sudirman Cup in mid-May. The Chinese team should be able to gather enough able bodies for the Sudirman Cup. For most players, the Olympic journey will start only at the end of May, at the Australian Open. After that and the Indonesian Open the week after, the schedule is fairly light until the World Championships. Furthermore, given that there are only two spots available to top 16 players, there is no longer the pressure to place at least 3 players into top 4 like before. It's hard to imagine there will be less than 4 Chinese WS players in the top 16 at the end of the Olympics qualification period. Therefore, there is still plenty of time to recuperate, adjust, and otherwise get back on track for the Chinese WS players.
Being the leading horse for this long can create a lot of problems for any player / team, such as expectation (result in pressure), injury, etc. Sometimes, take a little break and give up the trophy for a reasonable duration will allow you to re-group and have a fresh start. When you are the on the the top, you are the target, and everyone study your moves while hiding in dark themselves. Once you come down the stage, you reverse the spot light, and your opponent will be forced to take the extra pressure. So, it may not be such a bad thing in a long run.
I must say I am impressed by the depth of XD and WD in Chinese squad. MD is a usual disappointment. The biggest single difference is WS, where in the recent 7 months the Chinese have simply lost all. Also, in MS, I would say that China has the 2 top players in the world right now, but after them there is a deep void, with no one present to fill it. The situation is peculiar, because historically MS has been tough fought, and I cann't imagine a time when the undisputed top 2 were both Chinese. But again, there was also not a time, when there was no depth in the squad.
Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong has just beaten Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin for the Swiss Open XD title while the latter earlier dispatched of the INA WC pair NatsirTantowi. If these two relatively young pairs can step up to the plate and become reliable XD mainstays for Team CHN, perhaps CBA can consider freeing Zhang Nan to concentrate on MD whilst continuing to be the reserve XD pair with Zhao Yunlei for the team championships or as and when needed.
Lu and Huang are really fast learners. They are the ones to watch. Saw them in HK Open and they were really good then! I don't get the same feeling from Liu Cheng/ Bao Yixin - they are good but I just feel they are as special as Lu and Huang.
