I stayed up late yesterday to watch the old Lucy (Ball) Show on tv when I caught the news on the other channel and to my great delight, it was the highlights of the World Championships! I almost shouted in jubilance (as I beat Xia Xuanze... wait, I'm dreaming again...) as they showed some matches. After years and years of deprivation from 'live' TV badminton, alas, I watched it again (KL Challenge not counted, it's not fully competitive). Here are the thoughts that gathered in my head as I watched them play... Rikke Olsen/Jonas Rasmussen (DEN) vs Gao Ling/Zhang Jun (CHN) A delightful match for one thing, Gao Ling. I focused on her doing just one thing; her backhand flicks at the net, they're simply sublime and beautiful to watch as she bends her wrist gracefully, and flick it over. I was shouting inside to Rasmussen and Olsen to drop it to her backhand... drop to the backhand, drop to the backhand! I felt like a lovesick teenager all of a sudden - not over her, but her flicks, mind you Kim Dong Moon/Ra Kyeung Min (KOR) vs Chen Qiqiu/Zhao Tingting(CHN) Ting Ting, what a cute name! But the highlight of this match to me is the re-emphasis of Korean efficiency here. Both the Koreans were simply ruthless. They are to me, like the Delta Force of the US Commando. Top class material. Almost cold-blooded in execution. Creepy... The funny part here is to actually get myself mixed up for two months - the one with the reddish hair is Kim DM, not Ha TK. Darn... I've been off the TV circuit for too long... Oh, he had been making lots of mistakes in the game as well but his experience in men's doubles shines in this match where the Chinese were reduced to 'sparring partners'. Zhou Mi (CHN) vs Gong Ruina (CHN) Akhem, I find this game pretty interesting for the wrong reasons. The first thing is actually noticing that Zhou Mi is actually wearing a tight top and a skirt? So, now they're wearing skirts in international badminton? There had been pictures of Pi Hongyan in that kind of outfit but I never expected the conservative Chinese to do so. I was rooting for Zhou Mi... Too bad she lost, but she beat Gong Ruina in the looks department hands down. The tight all-red outfit looked pretty sexy on her, don't you think? Wong Choon Han (MAS) vs Shon Sheung Mo (KOR) WCH could pass through as a Korean in this one - his efficiency and accuracy simply something else. He must be playing the badminton that I've ever seen of him. This should give Xia Xuanze a message that history does not guarantee you a victory. I'd have to say that Shon SM is pretty tired. He simply lost it in the first set. Poor guy, having to play four continous rubber sets. But WCH won it fair and square. Candra (hi modius)/ Sigit vs Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng It's a matter of experienced men vs enthusiastic boys. The first set was pretty lopsided but it can be seen that Candra and Sigit were not really playing at full throttle, inviting the Chinese to attack. That was so true in the second half as the Chinese lost steam and began to panic, making unforced errors or making really poor returns. Experience triumps in second set. The third was a foregone conclusion. I could see Candra-Sigit beginning to play their full potential as the Chinese fall prey to their smart play. At the end, no surprise. Even I wasn't surprised when Candra-Sigit lost the first game. It's their trademark style : give their inexperienced opponents some false sense of security, then slowly dismantle them from the inside. Quite cruel, don't you think? The other thing I can say is that Candra-Sigit don't seem to play with the power and agression that usually accompanies Korean doubles somehow, or is this my oversight? Xia Xuanze vs Bao Chunlai I've never seen Xia XZ. Honest. And the first impression I got of him was that he looked more Malaysian than Chinese. Reminded me of the likes of Yong Hock Kin. The kind who drives sports cars and date the hottest ladies. A movie star. And his distinctive style, the rolled up collar ala Eric Cantona. He's got the commercial look, baybeh! I've seen Bao and he is more traditional in look and I quite like his style of play - rather graceful in comparison to power crazy Xia, relaxed and nice. Reminded me a lot of Yang Yang. Will he ever be that good or better? All in all, after a few points in the first set, I was too sure that Xia will get through, but he got one weakness which could be his downfall tomorrow - his stamina. The guy sweats like hell and seems to tire really fast compared to Bao. ==== There you go, my round up of the first matches on TV I've seen after a LONG LONG time! Tomorrow, as the commentator announced, we will have it live on terrestrial TV. Be assured that I've have another one of these rantings ready on Monday morning...
interesting, Bao is also a good actor, or either he was drunk, under the influence of drugs, or sleep walking when playing Xia. Terrible to assume Wong has never beaten Xia, that was the 7 point sysytem ! The world could have seen the youngest champion ever .
Darn it, it's gonna be a DELAYED telecast and of all times, 1:00 AM !!! Warrghh!! Gao Ling Gao Ling!!!
tv1 heard from a friend telling me that a live telecast on tv1 at 9 pm to 10 pm .Anyway what do u mean 'Gao ling' ?In cantonese ? Good luck to Wong C H . Malaysia Boleh.
And there we have it, 7 eventful days and only ONE live telecast for us poor Malaysians without satellite TV! If it goes on like this, I think I'm gonna go insane! To remedy this, I think the only way is by getting into an all-Malaysian finals, then maybe we'll get some finals to watch. In the future. At least. I hope so. Come to think of it, I should be thankful that I could wake up to the morning to come to work early (thanks to GMT0800) with the games stretching all the way to 2:00 am in the morning. As promised, the Madman Rantings continue... Ra Kyeung Min/Kim Dong Moon(KOR) vs Gao Ling/Zhang Jun(CHN) Didn't get to see this or the exquisite backhand flicks as the telecast began at 9:00 pm, and the commentator just had to give their 15 minutes two-cents on Wong CH vs Xia XZ. Man, they could just commentate on the XD events and that will be more useful than to talk about a game that is yet to come. Oh well. Congrats to Ra/Kim, World Mixed Doubles Champion 2003.. Powerful stuff. I had to check onto Worldbadminton.net to find the results. Gong Ruina (CHN) vs Zhang Ning (CHN) Again, our commentators had to talk about the Wong CH vs Xia Xuanze game and I missed just about 99% of it. Once the camera did pan to the Indoor Arena in Birmingham, Zhang Ning was only one point away from becoming world champion. Truth to say, she did. Pity that I only caught a glimpse of the reason why Gong Ruina hammered Mia Audina into oblivion in the semis, and why Zhang Ning deserves to be the best this year. Congrats to Zhang Ning, World Women's Singles Champion 2003. Wong Choon Hann (MAS) vs Xia Xuanze (CHN) I have to admit that I wasn't too confident with Wong CH's chances against Xia. I know history counts for nothing in big meets like these - anything can happen. But last night, at least it felt different. This time Wong CH played smart by forcing Xia to play rallies with him, while the opponent tried to kill the game off quickly before he gets too tired. The only problem that I can see with Wong CH is that he should not play Xia too much at the net as the guy is pretty lethal there. What's more, he made too much unforced errors there as well, resulting in points flying off just like that. He was in a position to challenge his nemesis, but he played it smart a little too late. It did drag into the rubbers and we can all see that Xia has become a little slower, probably due that he's very tired then, and Wong CH, having a 'superior' fitness in comparison to the other guy, decided to rally him to more fatigue. Still, unforced errors. What a pity. He could really have sealed it if he made less mistakes like that. All in all, Xia won but not the way as if he owns him (Wong) as Han has spoken earlier yesterday. This, to me, is a good enough reason for me to give him (Wong) a pat on his back for his efforts. He did all he could, but he wasn't good enough. Xia won it fair and square. Now, that is simply different compared to Chew-Chan vs Sang/Zheng... Congratulation to Xia Xuanze, World Men's Singles Champion 2003. Wei Yili/Zhang Tingting (CHN) vs Gao Ling/Huang Shui(CHN) I hope I'm not wrong if I say that this is a battle between newcomers and experienced campaigners? If so, sorry about that. Anyway, this is one match which I really enjoyed albeit the TV station's ability to 'ignore' women's events and sad enough, this was highly enjoyable. The ladies played with so much power and conviction while maintaining some level of grace that makes it totally 'brutal yet artistic'. I did watch the last ten points or so of the game but I can say that Gao/Huang are really playing to Wei/Zhang's inexperience by making well placed shots etc. Nice to know that the ladies are enjoying themselves on the courts, smiling and laughing as they try to outwit one another. Congratulations to Gao/Huang, World Women's Doubles Champion 2003 Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto (INA) vs Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen (DEN) Before I begin my mumbling about this one, CONGRATULATIONS to JR and LARS!! Ok, about the game. This was one match that could go either way. Both teams, most notably the Danes were using their height to great advantage, retrieving lifts faster and with more power to hammer it down where the Mighty Indonesians could not answer. But Candra/Sigit used their experience to full advantage as well to trap and knock the shuttle down quickly to gain points. It was only two points when suddenly it went, "We will be right back to this match after the Late News". I could almost hear thousands of Malaysians groaning in anger then. Even the newscaster looked 'hey-I-had to do it' look when she read the news but it was ok, only 15 minutes. And at 12:00 am, Candra/Sigit had lost the first set! My brother and I were suitably surprised, but his words earlier really made sense, "If the Danes are in the finals now, there must be something about them, mon". And truth to say, it was a display of speed + power vs strategy + experience. I was virtually 'praying' that Candra/Sigit would keep their cool as they always do under pressure, and win the second set. My heart was racing pretty fast and was almost jubilating when they hammered it down, 15 - 13, if not for the fact that I could get a mouthful of cuss from those who already slept. Then came rubber set. This was pretty exciting but we can see that the Indonesians are losing their composure with the Danes attacking mercilessly, hammering clears destined for the baseline down to the latex. Sigit, on one thing, was quite error-prone for his standards, but he did serve up a marvellous shot of deceptiveness by lifting the shuttle up when JR thought it was a net return. Simply fantastic. At the end, despite the herculian efforts by the Asians, Europeans are world champions of 2003 in the doubles. It wasn't easy for Candra/Sigit but they showed that it takes something special to beat them like that and JR/Paaske had that special something last night. A fair battle, a fair result. I need some help here. When the score was 12 - 10 (or 11?), JR made a serve and Candra was caught wrong footed but it was ruled as a... 'fault'? I don't understand what happened. Someone please explain. Congratulations Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen, World Men's Doubles Champions 2003. ==== There you have it, the end of my incessant ramblings about the World Championships. I hope to do it again in 2005. If you guys would allow it of course...
Akhem, some help needed here. When the score was 12 - 10 (or 11?), JR m ade a serve and Candra was caught wrong footed but it was ruled as a... 'fault'? I don't understand what happened. Someone please explain. Is it about him moving before the shuttle is served?
Receiver not allowed to move before shuttle is struck by server. The umpire called 'fault receiver'. Just shows how tense Candra was. I never seen him look so worried before.
