some thoughts on the Thomas Cup chance for China in the future. whether China wins it this year or not, China has a bright future for the next few cups. by doing a comparative analysis, let's look at how the 5 nations will do in the near future. Denmark - the strongest singles players are all getting old, Gade / Rasmussen / Jonassen. i doubt we will see them again, same for Eriksen/Lungaard. JR/LP cannot hold it by their own. Korea - Kim / Ha / Lee / Yoo are all getting old, Lee/Yoo are definitely showing signs of aging. singles players aren't getting any stronger either. Indonesia - doubles players are definitely on their way out, not sure if Flandi/Hian can hold on for 2 more years or not. but Candra/Sigit/Halim/Trikus are on their way out. Sony/Taufik will stay, Simon may get stronger. but still lacking a complete team. Malaysia - all players are old, the only young player who are showing promise is Lee CW and K3. other than that, the rest can only go downhill. China on the other hand, is completely different. Xia/ChenHong will go, but they have LinD/Bao/ChenYu who are already the strongest, ChenYu will improve even more in 2 yrs. in MD, Cai/Fu , Sang/Zheng are still young and will definitely hold on for at least a couple editions of the TC. the future is looking bleak for all other teams, but very rosy for China indeed.
Yes, Chen Jin just won the 2002 World Junior Championship just like Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai in 2000. Sounds he could be as good as Lin Dan and Bao Chunlai. Sigh. If China dominated Men's badminton like the Ladies do, watching badminton will be boring.
Nope, it will become more interesting because everybody loves to beat winners who come from China. Actually, why do people always go against China? Indonesia has probably been more successful than China in the Men's game.
haha yeah that is something i don't quite understand also... haha but i think one of the reasons could be LYB and his PR skills... i think quite a lot of pple are put off by his apparent arrogance etc... oh well... to each his own...
Don't forget that Indonesia still have the promising young pair of Alven/Luluk and Denmark have the upcoming Carsten Morgensen and his partner too...
Heh, that's a good point Cheung. I think it's just because China normally takes 2-3 or more titles at all the Grand Prix tournaments and has owned the UC and is not about to let go. But actually, it's all the better, as then they will just have to be dissapointed when China wins in team comps or in GPs!
Like I pointed out in some previous threads, such feeling is just the pure "sour grape" or "loser" to me. Many other organizations don't want to put into hardwork, but keep bring excuses like strategy, politics, rulez, etc to cover their own failure. Once againt, it takes yrs of hard work to be come a "giant", but not load of words and blames.
I don't quite understand this. I mean, for a sport, do u want to see the best 2 individuals (teams) face off against each other, or u want to just see 1 nation vs another, even though that might be a blow out? Once again, whose fault is this, if CHN becomes un-beatable? CHN? Just because they have good system and loads of talents with hard work???
I think China will regain the Thomas Cup and will probably defend it successfully for an extended period of time, just like the Indonesians did before. The defining moment for China's impending stranglehold on the TC was when China decided to get serious about their doubles. China will only get stronger in doubles to a level that will be at par with their singles. Give them another two years and they will have a more balanced team that will be hard to dethrone.
total domination is boring. like China's lady team. no nation is even close to beating them, it is already difficult to take one game off them, to win a 5 games team match is next to impossible. but men's side is different, there maybe a team that stands out but all teams are close to 80% of each other and the games are so close there is always the chance of a upset. like what we have today. China seems to be the best team today but there is always the other who have the ability to beat them. there is a chance for Denmark tomorrow. the competition is fierce and badminton fans love it. let's hope it will stay that way, let new promising youngsters come out and keep on challenging the top team. keep raising the bar and treat us with more great matches for years to come.
I think indonesian's badminton is going down now. Many good indonesian players are going overseas. Eg, Tony gunawan in US, Ronald Susilo in sgp, Marleve Mainaky in switzerland, Agus Haryanto in Hgk. Many of good players from indonesia are going overseas. If they are still playing for indonesia... I think the Indonesians team will be much stronger. Besides, Indonesians coach are also going out to other countries. In turn, the countries will become more stronger than Indonesia. i think thats y indonesia thomas cup team is very weak this yr
Same answer as Kwan's. If all the semi-finalists in all tournments are from the same country, who want to watch it any more?
Agreed... Everyone always seems to be gunning for China I thought INA was more successful in terms of overall players, especially of recent years, China will always be a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps Denmark has other players in their up and coming Juniors? Of course I wont be able to confirm anything unless our friends in Denmark can tell us some secrets? Also the world juniors are coming up here on the west coast of Canada, which I hope to catch. I hope to relay info and photos to the community of the event later on, and maybe this will give us some insight into who to watch out for... I also agree with Kwun's assessment of the situation as we see it currently. However, I am being an optimist, and hoping that other teams have some truly star calibur players hidden underneath their sleeves, and will spring them as the outgoing super stars retire, and hopefully help out their nations or other nations with developing talent. That's my 2 cents worth... or maybe it was a buck or and change.