So I guess the journey of Liu/Zhang has ended. Sad that they didn't win any medal, but I guess nothing can be done if they had to face Li/Liu. Ou/Zhang is on the reserve list for China Open S1000 for now, and also in the reserve list for for Korea Open S500. Guess they need more time to up their WR to qualify for higher tier tournaments.
It's full steam ahead for Zhang/Ou, they must play every single tournament available to try and get their world rankings up nd be in the race for Tokyo 2020. The same goes for Liu Cheng/Huang Kaixiang. No time to lose.
I watched the match in Akita Masters final between Ou/Zhang and Koga/Saito from a Akita local TV youtube channel live streaming with Japanese commentators. It's interesting to know what different country would think of any players, and it was Zhang Nan this time. One of the commentators is a former professional MD badminton player Norio Imai (have never heard of him) and his role was to offer insights and explanation from an expert point of view. While the other one was just an announcer offering superficial introductions and comments and asking Imai questions about players' technical skills, strategy, tactical etc to provide the viewers any badminton knowledge. When first ZN was introduced into court, the announcer asked Imai about ZN and his achievements. Imai answered that his impression of ZN was despite ZN was only being 29 and with having won multiple OG and WC gold medalists, he felt that ZN had lately declined in performance judging from Liu/Zhang results in the past year. But during the match, Imai displayed of how impressed he was by ZN's skill and how ZN setting up everything perfectly for his partner. The announcer was like "Oh? But I thought it was Ou who had been killing the shuttles with his powerful smashes. So it was ZN who set it all up? To me, it looked like he was just returning the shuttles normally though". Then when Imai asked about what the JPN pair should do, he suggested that the Japanese pair to target Ou when they attack or giving drop shot and not to return anything at the net to ZN. The announcer seemed to know little and was excited when the JPN coaches (one of them was Hayakawa) said exactly the same thing to the Japanese pairs lol Nothing new, the same strategy to win against Zhang Nan and his partners. Ou/Zhang won it in straight games. And when asked about what he thought about the match, Imai said "I thought after watching Koga/Saito beat Zhang Nan's former partner LC in SF yesterday, Koga/Saito would have had a good chance in the final against Ou/Zhang too. But going through today match, I could only think that ZN really was that good (his medals reputation). He took his time, changed paces, and knew what he was doing all time while he was also successfully getting the best game out of his partner, Ou, i.e. using his power and height." When I heard what the commentators had been saying from the beginning till the end, I got the impression that many had actually thought LC and ZN's level were the same because they were a pair who had won WC. I wonder if that really what the general view of Zhang Nan. So when the pair fell off, LC's performance will be seen as a reflection of ZN's too. Like in this S100 tournament alone, most of their matches up to the final live score showed a tight and struggling match close games. I could only watch R2 of Ou/Zhang (the only day they were on court 2) and even though the live score was 21-14, 22-20 the actual match itself was far from being close. I bet ZN could finish all the opponents on his own if he wanted to, but I suppose he wanted Ou to gradually get the feel of the game and gained the confidence. I sincerely hope that Ou will mature as a player and grow as ZN's equal partner in the (near) future. It's really sad to not able watching ZN matches, and it's just weird to see ZN playing in S100 tournaments too. But I guess as a scratch pair, they need to start somewhere lower.
Zhang/Ou's world ranking is now 67 and they are trying hard to garner as many ranking points as quickly as possible to get into the top 32 so as to avoid having to play the qualifying rounds for S300/500 events and be eligible for the S750/1000 events. The same applies to WR70, Liu Cheng/Huang Kaixiang, of course. I understand this pair has withdrawn from the Belarus Int'l this week while Zhang/Ou is still in it. I hope it's not because of any injury issue on Liu Cheng's part (Huang Kaixiang didn't play the WC), maybe he's just tired, exhausted, or , perhaps, a little ill and needed some rest (just speculating). After this week, the next tournament these two pairs are playing is the S100 Vietnam Open 10-15 Sep.
It's true their current ranking has been hindering them but they are still only 13,000 points behind the current #8 in the Race to Tokyo standings and with 4 events in hand vs. 3 of the current top 10. Also, they will likely make it off the reserve list for the Korea Open and after the win in Hyderabad, they will have 40,000 notional points. That would have been more than enough to get them into the draw for China so they should be fine for Denmark and France. In fact, Huang/Liu's move might be smarter, as they are in the same boat regarding notional ranking. You see, 20,000 real points means a notional ranking of 40,000 but even if you win an International Series, you only get 2,500 points so it would make your notional ranking 37500 or so and losing in the semis, say, would give you only 36250. But there just aren't enough pairs with 30-40,000 points to keep them out of Denmark or France.
I think with Ou/Zhang, it's not just ranking points but they need more experience and flying time together in any tournaments. The more matches they play the more they could develop as a pair. Even playing in S100 I could see how vulnerable Ou was, perhaps in the international series and playing less competent opponents would be helpful for Ou's growth. Huang is a more established and consistent player and from what I can see from both pairs performance wise, Huang/Liu is more stable and in a way more "ready" for higher tier tournaments. As a matter of fact, LD was also registered before he and Huang/Liu withdrew. It just didn't make sense.
Even Zhang Nan and his new younger partner are taking part grade III tournament, Belarus International Series in Minsk => https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=676F8159-96CC-4C53-BACD-497EC8A47A1F&draw=4
Thanks. Actually, I wasn't so much concerned with their Race to Tokyo as they all start on more or less an equal footing but more about their eligibility to play higher tier events for which you've ably provided the analysis. Unfortunately, they aren't qualified for the VICTOR China Open next month as they were ranked outside top 32 before the qualification deadline. Glad that as of today Zhang/Ou is WR20 and Liu/Huang WR28, so, yes, we'd see them at Denmark and France Opens.
Where did you see the WR list? In BWF site Ou/Zhang is WR67 and Huang/Liu is WR70. https://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/2/bwf-world-rankings/8/men-s-doubles/2019/35/?rows=100&page_no=1
Here updated to week 35 (2019-08-27) https://bwfbadminton.com/rankings/2/bwf-world-rankings/8/men-s-doubles/2019/35/?rows=25&page_no=1 Yesterday when I wrote my post, I was also looking at the previous week's world ranking and thought Zhang/Ou and Liu/Huang still have some way to go to qualify for the top tier events.Thanks to @event for alerting me to the latest world ranking.
You must have mistaken the names in WR list. WR20 is Liu/Zhang WR28 is Ou/Ren WR67 is Ou/Zhang WR70 is Huang/Liu As for the Race to Tokyo rankings: Ou/Zhang is #24 and Huang/Liu is #26.
Oh dear, thanks for the correction - my mind was elsewhere, attending to something urgent, so careless of me (yesterday I got it right, today I confused myself). My apologies. I think @event should take note too.
I was not confused, but I might have confused you. I was looking at the Race to Tokyo rankings, where those two Chinese pairs are #24 and #26 respectively, basically at par with He/Tan. As for their ranking points, which is the other pair of numbers I was looking at, they are the same, since Ou/Zhang and Huang/Liu only have points since May. In any case, you double their points to find out how they compare with the other pairs who might be competing for spots in the Denmark Open.
Sorry, I never use that so-called 'fan site'. Tournamentsoftware has the World Rankings here, and the Race to Tokyo here. As far as I know, the only thing the 'fan site' has that tournamentsoftware doesn't is ranking progress, and some birthdates.
I usually checked both sites. I like checking the ranking progress and with the fan site I can check the number of tournaments played, which or what tournament's points used so it's easier to predict the upcoming total points.
Just to update this, Ou and Zhang are indeed in the qualifying rounds for the Korea Open, as of the latest M&Q. They are also entered in the Super 100 event in Indonesia the following week. As for China, they could still end up playing. Mind you, Ko/Shin were 4th on the reserve list for their home Super 500 last year and not enough pairs withdrew. Super 1000 typically have fewer last-minute withdrawals, too, especially in the Olympic qualifying period.
I see that Ou/Zhang will be playing their QF match today. So that means they will be playing both SF and F tomorrow? Edit : Nope, they will play SF later tonight.
Ou/Zhang won Belarus International, as they should. Wanted to see how Ou would play in this tournament, if he would play a better quality shots here. But apparently he was just about the same like in any tournament (higher or lower). His shots quality = speed and power more or less, nothing else. I wonder if all the CHN team teach to their players or (younger ones especially) is for them to be the strongest and the fastest. They are fine when they are above the wind, but if not, they are screwed. I hope Ou could learn from ZN a thing or two. Anyway, congrats to them. And good luck.
Ou/Zhang lost R2 in VO.. 21-14, 26-28, 14-21 to INA pair whose names I had never heard of. Haven't seen ZN scratching his head yet, so I guess there is still hope in Ou.. Don't think they will make it to CO main draw unless there will be 4 or 5 pairs withdrawing. If they pass KO qualification round, they will play Fajar/Rian in R1. I saw their name in DO main draw so I assume they qualify too for FO.
