I said the senior. Most is therefore not necessary and superfluous to that sentence. Anyway, we both must agree that Auntie YJ is having a second wind and doing very well of late. She's put a lot of the youngsters to shame. I salute her.
"most" is necessary because "senior" is not a superlatve term though "the" implies one and only;unlike the tallest,the prettiest,the oldest,etc.Anyway,that's not important,you just enlightened me as to Charmaine Reid's background,I appreciate it. Indeed, Aunty Yao and Aunty Pi lately put many youngsters to shame (where's Xu Huaiwen,by the way?)
What will Lin Dan do to Wong tomorrow,meet him smiling with a present in hand or growling with a bazooka?
i don't think Lin Dan would give Wong the "present" i guess he would rather give it to Mark Zwiebler or Wan Ho Shon.... lets wait to see the drama...
Maybe we can do a poll...will Mr Lin WO in 2011HKO? That would make Mr Lin winning the most majors/Opens and also giving the most WO in history
She was the senior women's player on the circuit, then Charmaine Reid took over. Even Anna Rice, who is young in comparison, has retired.
Don't worry, LD won't do the "wong" thing. He likes to spread his generosity around. Maybe the guy in the next round will be the beneficiary
As I wrote earlier in the thread, I went to watch the afternoon session yesterday. Paid HK$40 at the entrance and went inside swiftly. It turned out that only half of the stadium was reserved for yesterday's match, the other half was covered. Matches were being played at 4 courts and the attendance was quite decent. The seat was better than those at the QE and I had a good view of all the 4 courts, even with the cheapest ticket As you might have guessed, my intention was to watch the only the INA pair that is participating in the HKG SS 2011, Hendra A. Gunawan/Alvent Yulianto Chandra. They were quite disappointing in the first-set, losing easily to Mads Conrad Petersen/Jonas Rasmussen 12-21. As expected, Hendra A.G. was making the most of the errors and you can get pretty frustrated watching him play! The trend still continued early in the second-set as the DEN pair got themselves into a 7-2 lead. Things slowly changed with the INA pair beginning to find their range and started picking up points. From 2-7, to 5-8 and it was at this moment that they rallied to win 6 pts in a row to make it 11-8 at the interval. Confidence began to ooze in them and they came back strongly after the break to win another 5 pts in a row to make it 16-10. Despite the good lead, as would be expected of INA players, they threw the lead quite quickly mostly through their own errors and the DEN pair was back level in no time, 17-17 and 18-18. Luckily, at this critical moment, the INA pair regained their composure and won the next 3 pts to seal the set 21-18 and force a rubber-set. The DEN pair was again the quicker pair to settle down in the decider, with an early 3-1 lead. But AG/Alvent were never going to let them go beyond that and they were playing confidently, shouting encouragements to each other after winning each pt and they were ahead 8-4. Although the DEN pair managed to narrow the gap to 7-8, this was the closest they could get as the INA pair was obviously playing very well after the interval of the rubber-set. They eventually won the decider and the match quite comfortably 21-14 in a tie that lasted slightly more than 1 hr. I went home quite satisfied and it was worth HK$40 as I stayed there for close to 3 hrs.
The other interesting match that I watched involved Nathan Robertson/Jenny Wallwork and Shoji Sato/Shizuka Matsuo. This was a dramatic match that lasted 72 mins, especially the first two sets. Both pairs had the chances to win this one in straight-sets but failed to do so. In the first-set, the Japanese pair settled down well and was never behind until the score was 20-18. It was at this moment that the English pair rallied and forced deuce 20-20. They even had game pt at 21-20 which was saved by the Japanese. The crowds were definitely entertained as both pairs exchanged lead since then. The Japanese pair had 6 more set-pts since 20-20 but failed to convert them! There was also an incident whereby Jenny Wallwork threw her racket into the air out of frustration of losing a pt during the many deuces and it landed on the other court (the WS being played was Ai Goto vs Juliane Schenk). Luckily, the racket did not hit Ai Goto! I did not see whether the referee flashed any yellow card to Jenny as she went over to the other court and apologized to Ai Goto! After both pairs wasted many set-pts, it was the English pair that was triumphant and won the first-set 30-29, with Nathan clenching his fist into the air after the dramatic victory! Having won the first-set, the English pair started strongly in the second-set and was quickly ahead 10-4 and then 15-11. Just as I thought the match would be over by now, the Japanese refused to give up and trailing 11-15, they started their comeback and won 7 pts in a row to make it 18-15 and then 20-16 to their advantage! The English pair was stunned and lost some rhythm & confidence. The Japanese thought they had won it 21-16 and went over to pack their bags when the English pair protested that the bird did not cross the net! This incident delayed the match for quite a bit and it needed the intervention by the chief referee Mr. Juniarto Suhandinata. At the end, the English pair was given the pt 17-20. They only managed to win 1 more pt before the Japanese pair sealed it 21-18, to the delight of the crowd! Unfortunately, the Japanese could not maintain their momentum in the second-half of the second-set as the English pair was once again quicker to settle and was ahead 10-4 in no time. There was no turning back and Robertson/Wallwork took it 21-17 at the end!
The cheapest ticket for R16 is still HK$40 but you need to buy 2 tickets for the afternoon & night session. I am probably not going today as the INA match is scheduled to be at night. I also watched Hiroyoki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa vs the DEN pair. It was still quite an even match in the first-set, with the Japanese pair edging it 21-17. I did not really watch the second-set as I was concentrating on the XD match. Nevertheless, the JAP pair won it easily 21-12 in the second-set. The match between the HKG junior pair Lee Chun Hei/Ng Ka Long (who lost to Ronald Alexander/Selvanus Geh in the WJC 2011 QF) vs Michael Fuchs/Oliver Roth drew much attention from the crowds, especially in the second-set. The promising HKG juniors rallied to level the score at 20-20, despite trailing 11-18! They saved 4 match pts at 17-20 and then 20-21; and the crowds were rallying behind them to force a rubber-set. Unfortunately, it was not to be and they lost gallantly 21-23 and a huge round of applause for the efforts by the very promising local juniors. Lee Chun Hei/Ng Ka Long, both born in 1994, will be a force to contend with at the next AJC & WJC, which will also represent their last year in juniors. Lee/Ng were also the bronze-medallist at the WJC 2010, having beaten Choi Seung Il/Kang Ji Wook (the AJC winner 2010) in the QF and losing to Nelson Heg/Teo Ee Yi (the WJC winner 2011) in the SF! They will be also competing at the upcoming Macau GPG 2011. Already this year, they had competed in Malaysia Open GPG, Vietnam Open GP, and Chinese-Taipei Open GPG.
I also watched glimpses of Michelle Li vs Pai Hsiao-Ma. She was impressive and madbad must be proud of her! Her wins in the first and third set were quite convincing! Not to mention she's right on track to the London Olympics and her ranking (WR21) is way ahead of INA's Pelatnas players, with Lindaweni Fanetri trailing behind at 34! Needless to say, I am very disappointed with our INA's WS players, who now trailed not only countries like CHN, KOR, DEN, and JPN; but players from countries like IND, TPE, THA, SIN, NED (Yao Jie), GER (Juliane Schenk & Olga Konon), FRA (Pi Hongyan), BUL (Petya Nedeltcheva), HKG, CAN (Michelle Li), ESP (Carolina Marin), SCO (Susan Egelstaff) are ALL RANKED ABOVE the Pelatnas players! Very embarrassing and we simply need a complete overhaul! The XD pair Adrian Liu/Joycelyn Ko also impressed as they managed to win 16 pts in each set against the upcoming KOR pair Ko Sung Hyun/Eom Hye Won. The now disbanded pair of Fran/Pia could only manage 14 and 16 against the same pair in the Denmark SS last month.
I allways remember Denyse Julien, the woman who beat young Susy Susanti (16 y.o) on her debut in Senior event. While Denyse already called "Auntie" at that time. Susy Susanti has retired a long time ago and Denyse Julien still play in around 2008-2009.
I watched Michelle Li as well. Improved since last year. Probably more confident. I think she still can work on her speed - just needs a bit more acceleration in her legs. This would probably take her easily into the top ten.
