Do you know how’s Shi Yuqi’s recovery right now? Wish he’s back soon, great guy and great attacking play. One more contender to challenge Momota
Let fate decide. With the current state it looks like daunting challenge for China MS to continue Olympic gold tradition after Lin Dan (2008, 2012) and Chen Long (2016).
No matter what, Shi Yuqi has to be back competing actively next month, full steam ahead, no time to lose, only four months left for him to play catch-up in the Race to Tokyo. I'd expect him to register for all the tournaments available from January to April, can't afford any break in-between, and unless he performs very well in the higher tier events, he won't have the luxury to skip the smaller events for a much-needed rest. Must be pretty tough and stressful for him. What to do, if he misses this Olympics, he'll have to wait another 4 years. At age 23, how many four-year cycles does he have for the quadrennial Olympics? I do agree with you, Shi Yuqi has the potential to be a serious challenger to Momota. At the Sudirman Cup, the way he trounced Momota, as well as their previous two encounters, gave me the impression he was on the cusp of another breakthrough in his career, if not for the unfortunate injury at the INA Open in July.
What happened to Chen Long after 2017? He won Olympics and World Championships, but seems to have dropped off significantly. Any idea what the reasons are for his big drop off?
I think just the classical post-success-comedown-effect. We have seen it many times and in many sports. After a huge success, some factors come together to cause a downfall. For example motivation is lower, maybe you train less hard, getting distracted by other engagements, and also, as Chen Long talked about himself, all the other opponents are now very focused on you. Extra focused on figuring out your weaknesses, extra motivated to beat you in every match you play.
Chen Long is no longer young, doesn't mean that he is incapable, but many other factors add up. As vixter said, he probably cares less, and he has other priorities as well, his very young child and his wife. You reach a certain level of satisfaction, you are less motivated.
I don't think he's dropped off in terms of playing quality at all. Just in terms of consistency. He doesn't produce his best as often as he did in 2011-2015. There could be many reasons for that. Motivation - about that we can only speculate. I think that there was a drop after the Olympics, but when he plays well these days, he still looks totally up for it. He's also won so much in his career, I doubt personalites like him don't care if they lose at the WC, SC, TC or infront of home fans. Fitness - If anything, he looks more wiry, more muscular nowadays (2018, 2019) than he did in his best year, 2015. So he still obviously makes a big effort to be in shape. This also goes against the "loss of motivation" theory. There could of course be minor injuries we don't know about, which affect him from time to time. This would explain why he still performs really well at times, and sometimes not at all. It is important to note that badminton has changed a lot in terms of fitness over the last five years. CL is not the outstanding grinder anymore and there are several players like Ginting or SYQ that are so fast and so good at smashing, they can play him off the park. Quality - As I said, in my opinion his top level has not changed, just the number of times he can produce it per year. He's rightly revered because he achieved success during the LD/LCW years. If you look at it more closely, you can see that for 3 of his 4 best years, he didn't beat Lin Dan, the best player in the world, once (!) for a title. 2012-14 he played LD exactly twice and lost both times. Up until 2016, CL won 26 individual titles, but only had to defeat LD for that two (!) times. This is one of the two times: A really good match, no doubt, but not better badminton by Chen Long than what we see him produce when he battles it out in three against Axelsen or Momota nowadays, or beats SYQ for the French Open title. So, a drop in consistency for CL, yes. A drop in quality, not so much.
yeah there is definitly a lack of consistency, he can't be at his best more often, as he could before. So he peak few times per year (generaly during and around the french open lol), however I believe he got slower, he's way more slower than in 2011-2015, when MS was faster and harder too. He's very big so it's hard to keep such big machinery on top, he also passed his biological peak, combined with less (but still present) hunger that explain why he move slower (even at his yearly peak) than in 2011-2015
Could you please provide examples of the "way faster" Chen Long 2011-15 and also the "faster and harder" MS, please? Have seen no video ever that indicates any of these things. He's certainly looks like he's still working out a bit. In 2017 he was 28, 2018 29 and in 2019 30. If you look at Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Lebron, Ronaldo, Kobe, MJ, or our own LCW at those ages, they were all very much on top of their game physically and many of them bigger and/or heavier than CL. Usain Bolt won the Rio Olympics at 30, fractionally "slower" than when he first won at 22. So if CL is "way more slower", as you say, it is certainly not apparent in his physique and it isn't in his game play.
2 things: he is slightly slower due to age & the current competition is faster than 2011-2015, which makes him look even slower.
I didn't said that the biological peak was the whole explanation, but an argument to add to "why he isn't as good as before" Chen Long was faster and stronger back then because LCW peak was in 2011, he's level got dowhill from 2011, same for LD (except his peak was more in 2008-2009), and he was able to beat a peak LCW and got very close to LD, so yeah he was better in 2011-2015 than in 2017-2019 0à IMO the competition between the TOP5 MS is less harsher today than in 2011-2015, however the level of the TOP5-100 players is way wayy more harder today yes, because badminton is taken more seriously/more money in europe so more player can live of it and train full time
IMHO, as far as speed is concerned I think there is not much, in fact little, if any, difference among the top few players then and now, just that I noticed more and more players in recent years are playing at a higher pace than previously, even those up to top 100 ranked. Don't forget, good anticipation also plays a part in speed, in getting the shuttle a bit earlier, so it's not purely speed of movement. Otherwise , how do LCW at the ripe old age of 35 in badminton terms, coped with his younger opponents, most notably his famous victory at the MAS Open in 2018 beating Momota, no less. As for Chen Long, he is simply off his prime, age being his greatest enemy, the more so for a big man like him who plays a very physical game. Besides, it's natural that his hunger and motivation is no longer as high as when he was in his ascendancy and striving for his first few major titles, for which he captured three in a row culminating in the 2016 Olympic gold. Frankly, I have my doubts he can peak one last time now that he's 31 already, born 18 January 1989, as he needs to be consistent throughout the entire five-round tournament, and that's the problem troubling him the most in recent years. As we know, the rate of recovery of an older athlete past 30 is beginning to slow significantly, power is affected first before endurance which suffers considerably later as one approaches 35. Even the super fit Chou Tien Chen is showing some signs of showing down the last two years as compared to his younger days when he was like his 5-year younger compatriot, Wang Tzu Wei, a fast hard-hitter. Personally, I'm interested and curious to see what Li Mao can do for Chen Long, if he could help him regain his former prowess by pointing him in the right direction based on his strengths and attributes as he seemed to have lost his way after achieving his crowning glory at the Rio'16 Olympics. To be honest, I think Li Mao might have better results developing and nurturing the younger cohort. Even so, I'm not ready to entirely rule out Chen Long's chances yet. We'll see how it goes.
Maan, this is why I love CL, no pressure no choking, keep calm and play perfect even at most crucial junctures. The guy reminds me of my fav cricketer MSD (also called captain cool). No unnecessary emotion even when winning or losing, happy to wear and play with 11year old shoes and rackets, no extravagance. I don't know how far he can go but hope he win a medal of any color, gold would be ideal but can be tough based on age.
And Chen once again stopped Malaysia's hope of getting a medal, looks like no Lee will win gold as long as Chen Long is around
Chen Long has cost three Thomas Cup and one Asian Games Gold to China by Choking though so not sure the MSD comparisons are valid
Notice those flops you mentioned are team majors/events, so I'd concede Sumanth99 the right to laud Chen Long for the way he carried himself to victory during the individual championships, in particular the two world titles and one Olympic gold, all captured at the expense of the Mighty Lee CW, including the manner in which he put Lee Zijia in his place at the Tokyo Olympics R16 that elicited such praise from him. Hmm...come to think of it, it reminds me of Li Xuerui, who is known to choke at every world and Olympic events after having won her maiden Olympic gold at Lodon'12, the one and only major title to her name, but, yet, she can be counted on to deliver at almost every Sudirman and Uber Cups (both world team championships) except the last and final one she played in post-injury layoff after the Rio'16 OG for about a year at the Uber Cup in 2018 (if I'm not wrong and lost miserably to THA's Busanan at the semifinal stage in a must-win tiebreaker match - I'm just recalling from memory, too lazy to check it up).
I would love to see Chen Long in the semi finals. I think he'll make it. CTC is very playable opponent.
It was an intense battle between party vs jesus, this the best I saw CTC play, great fight. Another fine victory for Chen Long, I think it wont be very unreasonable to assume bronze atleast.
