Qiao Bin's breakthrough tournament, a morale booster and huge encouragement. Hope we can see him more often on the winner's rostrum. Congratulation to Qiao Bin for winning his maiden SS title, KOR Open '16 MS Champion.
Big announcement to the World by Qiao Bin about his arrival in the Superseries circuit after winning his debut title in Korea. (Shi Yuqi also doing well). We can't neglect Huang Yuxiang as well.
You're quite right,in a way, all three, Qiao Bin, Shi Yuqi and Huang Yuxiang, have made significant progress, each of them have won their first titles.
Luo Ying has better placement shots, more variation, than Luo Yu but neither of them are good setters for the other one to initiate the attack.
USD45K prize money to Qiao Bin, and he gets to keep half (as I understand it), a nice paycheck for a week's work.
I'm really impressed with Qiao Bin's performance. He's so fast on drop shots from his opponent and almost drives them like a doubles player; rare sight in MS. Also I can not remember ever seeing him take a high backhand. Especially like his forehand inside-out net play. Seeing him play like this I cannot believe that he was easily crushed by LCW just a week ago in Japan.
Host Korea rules double category to scoop all three titles, Lee YD/Yoo YS end their last international tournament with high note to defend their crown in front of homeground fans, the world number one got thrilling moment at second game and really pushed the limit by the never give-up Chinese rising pair Li/Liu, 86 minutes gruelling final. Another close contest also happens in WS when Japan blossoming teen Akane Yamaguchi edged past local favorite Sung Ji Hyun despite lost first game narrowly, 20-22. The most surprising winner is none but Chinese MS, world #41 Qiao Bin who's performing superbly along this tournament and showing rapid improvement than last time he entered final in TPE GP Gold last July. The aggressive and fast attacking Qiao demolished Son Wan Ho at first game, lost 21-23 but he came back with a style in deciding game to overpower the fatigue Son in 84 minutes battle. A big leap for this young man to bag his maiden Superseries crown, even Tian Houwei is still seeking first title in Superseries event. The first final is pretty straight-forward clash, Ko/Kim took revenge over Chinese teenagers Zheng/Chen, the more pro-active Korean pair displayed much better performance than last week in Tokyo. It's anticlimax in WD, Jung/Shin dominated whole match as Luos only applied long rallies and defense, the top-seed simply outclassed the Chinese.
The host broadcaster never shows more than 3h per day of the Korea Open. This weekend, they were showing a Korean pro volleyball tournament in the afternoons, so that explains the 11AM start. As for the match order, they had to be sure that Lee Yong Dae would be on TV and likely Ko/Kim were either viewed as the most popular other pair (and the other world #1) or the most likely to win a title. Sung Ji Hyun would be the same. Ironically, it is possible that WD was put at the end to keep spectators hanging around. They were the only Olympic medallists, after all. Indeed, there was nothing like the thinning of the crowd that happened in 2011, where loads of people left after Jung/Lee won, not interested in sticking around for Lee Chong Wei vs. Lin Dan. Welcome to Korea, where the priorities go: 1) Lee Yong Dae; 2) Korea beating China or Japan; 3) badminton
Atm, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen lacks the experience That means hero-worship, idol-worship or the chasing after celebrities in Korea is the favourite pastime or craze rather than the sport itself which is even subordinate to patriotism. Luckily, it's able to maintain Korea as a badminton powerhouse.
Sorry I'm asking a question in this dead thread but I'm curious, how does this new rule works ? If let's say Chen Long and Marin stay at 9 or 10 ranking does it mean that 8 top players plus them go to Dubai as they are current champions or would they each replace player at 8th place ? Or would Chen Long replace Lin Dan who is 2nd best chinese player in SS ranking right now ? Thanks
I believe that Chen Long would replace Lin Dan. They will definitely not have 9 players. That is stipulated in Regulation 1.2.2, which describes the wild card process. Last year, the BWF wasted their wild card on Tian/Zhao, who withdrew after two matches. Their inclusion in Dubai - as the 8th pair, not 9th - prevented Korea's Go/Yoo from going. However, the text of this regulation - like many in the BWF rulebooks - could be misleading. It says that the wildcard is 'subject to 1.2.3', which is the regulation limiting each member association to 2 entries. That would appear to mean that they wouldn't give a wild card if the MA already had two entries. However, the suspicion is that the wild card would take precedence, and then the BWF would start inviting the next 7 highest-ranked players or pairs and subject those 7 to the 2-per-MA rule. I say 'suspicion' because that is not how the rules are written and we have no precedent because Tian/Zhao are the only wild card recipients to date and in their case, only one Chinese pair was in the top 7. I find that we are forced to look at precedent rather than the 'letter of the law' because in so many cases, when BWF text suggests something counter-intuitive, or fails to allow for situations not covered by the text, they generally break the rule and follow logic. That's how we end up with a rule that says if you enter one tournament and withdraw, you can't be entered in another tournament the same week but when the other tournament turns out to be one that the BWF wants you to play, on threat of a hefty fine, then it turns out that you can be entered in another tournament in the same week as the one you withdrew from. So in this case, the text of the rule says that the wild card invitation will go out 'subject to' the limit of 2 entries per MA. However, that makes no sense because then the wild card would end up being used only in the case that the MA had only 0 or 1 player in the top 8, but not if they already had 2. That would mean that the wild card would only serve to shore up the MA's quota and take invitations away from other MAs, and wouldn't always do what it is supposed to, which is ensure that the World or Olympic gold medallists all have their names on the marquee for Dubai. In short, Chen Long gets invited to Dubai as the Olympic gold medallist and China gets one more player from the top 7.
My understanding goes like this - let's say, by the cut-off date for the Dubai SSF, CHN have Tian Houwei, the higher ranked SS standing MS, and Lin Dan, the second highest SS Standing MS , in the top 8, whilst Chen long is ranked outside the 8, meaning CHN already have max two allowed in the top 8 qualifiers for the SSF, then the automatic Olympic champion or World Champion (non-OG year) qualifier will replace the lower ranked of the two CHN MS qualifiers, that is Lin Dan's place will be taken over by Chen Long. Of course, if Chen Long chooses not to go, then Lin Dan's place is retained for him. And if Lin Dan also decides not to go, then his place will go to the 9th ranked SS Standing MS. At the same time,it's possible that Tian Houwei can choose not to go and give his place to Chen Long instead whilst Lin Dan remains a qualifier. Clearly, the maximum two entries per MA rule for each discipline and the automatic qualification entitlement for the reigning OG/WC titlist take the top two precedence over everything else. In the Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei's case, they qualified as the reigning WD champion as CHN had one other WD pair ranked in the top 8 of the SS Standing, Luo Ying/Luo Yu as the top seed, thus pushing out the No.8 ranked WD pair whatever MA they were from. As for the 9th ranked SS Standing player or pair in each category, they get to go if the 8th ranked player or pair opted out of it but again subject to max two entries per MA. Apparently, the Superseries Finals give the prerogative or special privilege to the reigning WC or OG titleholder so as not to diminish the stature by having the best 8 and including the World or Olympic Champion in the season finale. Don't forget the World Championships and the Olympic Games are ranked as BWF Tier 1 tournaments awarding 12,000 ranking points, higher than the BWF SS Finals and Premier events at 11,000 ranking points, for the respective winners. So, logically speaking, how can the World or Olympic champion not be featured in the SSF ? http://www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=15370 Btw, the automatic qualification for the reigning WC/OG titlist is not the same as wild card entry, technically speaking, because his/her/their place in the SSF cannot be given to anyone else other than the WC/OG titlist.
