Yeah, The Dragon's game is effective,textbook,clinical, all but exciting,creative or artistic. LCW's style is more enjoyable, entertaining, creative and artistic to watch and his wins are usually convincing, seldom see him pushed ,much less struggling, to beat most of the lesser opponents, unlike Chen Long. Lin Dan's matches are the best , for me, but this time when he comes back, he'll be out of practice, rusty, and would probably need at least six months or more to become really match-fit and regain his top form. IMHO, LD made a wrong move to take another long break immediately after his spectacular WC'13 victory which was a rare phenomenon in itself coming from almost a year of international inactivity (discounting the three matches he played at the BAC'13). Anyway, I hope he proves me wrong but I'm not too optimistic for the first six months at least.
Sigh.....the INA girls eventually lost 20-22 at the decider Nevertheless, Suci/Tiara have really forced the Japanese pair all the way. If they have a little bit of luck in the first-set (wasted 4 set-pts), they would have taken it in straight-sets.
Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir are the second INA representative in XD SF, after a straight-set victory over Anders Kristiansen/Julie Houmann. Can the 2 pairs make an all-INA Final on Sunday?
Very proud of you Andini/Tiara Their performance worthy of standing applause Just short of luck in the end..
Good job Simon Santoso as he checks in to the SF, after beating Lee Dong Keun in straight-sets, despite trailing many pts in both sets. He's expected to take on Du Pengyu for a place in the Final. His resurgence is good news for the Thomas Cup as he's probably going to be fielded in MS2 or MS3.
Han Li is unlikely the one to beat IR here. I'd say Sun Yu, Liu Xin and Yao Xue, not in any order, would have a 50% chance of doing so if they were here.
that will be really interesting if INA to meet CHN in the final as their seeding suggested. If Santoso can pick up one point and INA will have a real chance to beat CHN assuming INA take both MDs that is quite likely. Both SS and LD can play MS3 or promoted to play MS2. Will their coaches try to pit or avoid them to play each other?
I don't think Simon will play MS1 as there's still Hayom and Sony (if he can recover) above him. INA will probably field him in MS2 and a junior player in MS3 like Jonatan Christie (my guess). Against either Wang Zhengming or Du Pengyu, Simon has a decent and realistic chance of winning a pt.