Lin Dan should win. Lee CW vs Chen Hong Chen Jin vs Peter Gade are really neck and neck Bao CL was supposed come out in the last quarter. Now with his withdrawal, Lee HI should win, but Sato may change the landscape of the mens single.
MS : Lin Dan vs (kenneth.J or Sairul amar Ayob) Lee chong wei vs Chen Hong Chen Jin vs Peter gade Shoji Sato vs Lee Hyun Il WS : Zhang Ning vs Eriko Hirose Pi Hongyan vs Sheng Shaoh Shieh Mia Audina vs Wang chen Xie Xingfang vs Xu Huaiwen MD : Choong/Lee vs Jung/Lee Lin/Tazari vs Laybourn/Paaske Abdul latif/Gan vs Hadiyanto/Yulianto Guo/Xie vs Eriksen/lundgaard MxD : Lee/Lee vs Eriksen/Shjoldager Zhang/Gao vs Prapakamol/thung'kam Xie/Zhang vs Robertson/Emms Laybourn/Rytter Juhl vs Widianto/Natsir Wd .... it's not finished yet
MEN'S SINGLES QUARTER-FINAL Lin Dan vs Kenneth Jonassen Lee Chong Wei vs Chen Hong Chen Jin vs Peter Gade (MATCH OF THE ROUND) Lee Hyun Il vs Shoji Sato -- except for the first and last match, the other 2 matches are touch and go. LCW is on form right now and he should be able to handle Chen Hong. Chen Jin is really maturing and it’s not easy for Peter to beat him. Remember than Chen prevailed once in the Denmark Open. Peter will definitely want his revenge. MEN'S DOUBLES QUARTER-FINAL Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah vs Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae (MATCH OF THE ROUND) Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari/Lin Woon Fui vs Thomas Laybourn/Lars Paaske Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif/Gan Teik Chay vs Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto Guo Zhendong/Xie Zhongbo vs Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard Hansen -- Eriksen/Lundgaard Hansen and Luluk/Alvent should prevail. The other 2 matches should be tight. WOMEN'S SINGLES QUARTER-FINAL Zhang Ning vs Eriko Hirose Pi Hongyan vs Cheng Shao-Chieh (MATCH OF THE ROUND) Mia Audina vs Wang Chen Xu Huaiwen vs Xie Xingfang -- another chance for Cheng Shao-Chieh to reach the semi-final of a major event. She is definitely a potential. The others are quite straight forward matches. WOMEN’S DOUBLES QUARTER-FINAL Gao Ling/Huang Sui vs Kumiko Ogura/Reiko Shiota (MATCH OF THE ROUND) Gail Emms/Donna Kellogg vs Wei Yili/Zhang Yawen Chien Yu-Chin/Cheng Wen-Hsing vs Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen Aki Akao/Tomomi Matsuda vs Lee Kyung Won/Lee Hyo Jung -- pretty straight forward matches. But Ogura/Shiota might upset the top seed, given that Gao Ling has to play earlier in the mixed doubles (usually played first). That match is gonna be tough and long…. MIXED DOUBLES QUARTER-FINAL Lee Jae Jin/Lee Hyo Jung vs Jens Eriksen/Mette Schjoldager Zhang Jun/Gao Ling vs Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thungthongkam (MATCH OF THE ROUND) Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen vs Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms Thomas Laybourn/Kamilla Rytter-Juhl vs Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir -- yet another QF clash between Zhang/Gao and Sudket/Saralee….a repeat of the WC. Can Sudket/Saralee prevail once more? Seems that Saralee is still bothered by her injury? The fast improving Xie/Zhang should trouble Robertson/Emms, but the home crowd should help the reigning champion to win…possibly in 3 sets. Nova/Butet must show that they are capable of winning the AE…and the first step begins with defeating Laybourn/Rytter-Juhl, who have beaten them in the semi-final last year.
Damn. BCL withdrew? I was really hoping he was gonna win. He's been really rising to the top over the last few months. Except of course his matches with LD.
even though i am a chinese, i really hope peter gade would win one last big tournament before his retirement =\
weeeel.. agree in most places.. MS - would love to see KJ take lin dan down in a marathon 100minute 3 setter sorta like when he lost in the WC to Xia in that marathon game.. it's a bit different tho. hopefully he can wear Lin down a bit tho. That way the next round he has to face LCW when he knackered - Lin can prolly manage that one too but by the time he gets to Gade he'll be spent.. LCW vc CH - v close match - definitely a 3 setter - depends how much old man Hong wants it.. CJ vs PG - again depends how much PG wants it - but this man has a fire that burns.. he's shown a lot this year at how much hit fitness has improved and his experience is showing. as a bonus he should get a relatively easier match vs LHI or SS in the semi, altho LHI is in form and could be more dangerous that expected. MD - personally i think it's wide open for the Danes. Luluk/Alven are young and have started slowly - the danes will punish them and are certainly the pair to beat in the draw now. TL&LP will push the malaysians hard. while they may have taken out Cai & Fu i suspect there is something not quite right there, perhaps injury or illness.. some people don't complain if they are ill and just get on with it. WD - agree.. don't really take an interest - the English girls will fight hard, but i think Gail will save herself for the XD where she will meet ZHang again (must be fed up of the sight of each other ) WS - perhaps Mia can raise herself this time.. and Pi, Eriko Hirose can be trouble, but Zhang Ning is a truly dominant force in this category. XD.. so.. my favourite category.. I think all the matches are going to be close, but you'd expect that - they're all the seeded partnerships.. However i think Nathan's decision to stop playing MD will be the deciding factor - all lot of the other players are in the MD/LD events and have played more games than Nathan, i think only Zhang Jun and Nova Widianto are in the same enviable position. So.. let the games commence here's hoping the XD is on in the evening so that all the girls and guys are knackered and so that Nathan and Gail can dominate and return to the no.1 spot they worked so hard to achieve before the WC. Also good luck to Jens/Mette - Lee/Lee can be eratic and haven't strung many results together recently perhaps Jens/Mette can turn them over this time Coops
XD is also my fav category... interesting point about specialization. i always wonder why INA doesn't let Lilyana play WD. she will be an awesome WD player. i can only guess that they probably think that even if she plays, there is little hope of breaking the Great Wall so it is better for her to concentrate on XD? back to AE.. Lee/Lee vs. Eriksen/Schjodager - so difficult to predict. Lee/Lee can be lethal at times, but also can completely fall apart on others. Eriksen/Schjodager are stable most of the time, but never very outstanding. i give it to Lee/Lee for their #1 ranking. Zhang/Gao vs. Prapakamol/ThungThongKam - oh boy, how Zhang/Gao would love to beat the Thai pair again to avenge their WC lost. but the Thai's are easy meat. Sudket "superman" Prapakamol will not let any shuttle go slow nor low, while Saralee just need to keep her composure and be more offensive at the net. the reason side of my brain tells me it is a 55/45 match to the Chinese, i think. but i have been rather fond of the Thai pair lately, so my heart bumped it back up to 49/51. so Saralee/Sudket it is... XieZB/ZhangYW vs. Robertson/Emms - back a year ago, i would think that the Brits will butcher the Chinese easily here. but time has passed and the Chinese youngsters have gained much experience and confidence since. the largest hurdle will be for XieZB to remain calm and continue his offensive. ZhangYW will have a tough battle against the very fast Emms. but in the end, i still think this is 50/50 match and i give it to Robertson/Emms for the crowd support. Laybourn/Juhl vs. Widianto/Natsir - a replay of last year's semi-final, how exciting. while our friend Thomas/Kamilla are runner-up last year, they are unlucky to be drawn against reigning World Champions. Lilyana i have totally faith in but Nova can be shaky at times. i give the match 60/40 to Widianto/Natsir.
Lol- of course they are... dumb 'ol me.. it's been a long day.... here's hoping that the mixed won't be on first- i'm sure it won't it wasn't last year or the year before.. they usually put it on after some men's doubles and mens singles.. Coops
if im not mistaken, tis is already the 2nd time they beat cai&fu. (china open & AE) i've seen tis pair playin in Malaysia open, their attackin game is very solid. eventually they lost to cai&fu, but its a vry close 3 setter fight....
Predictions MS Lin Dan bt Kenneth Jonassen Lee Chong Wei bt Chen Hong (match of the day) Chen Jin bt Peter Gade (next match of the day) Lee Hyun Il bt Shoji Sato For me, except for Lee Hyun Il, the other matches could go either way. Interesting. The quarterfinals is usually the most interesting stage. WS Zhang Ning bt Eriko Hirose Pi Hongyan bt Cheng Shao-Chieh Wang Chen bt Mia Audina (match of the day) Xie Xingfang bt Xu Huaiwen Did I say the quarterfinals are the most interesting? In the semis, sometimes you can't see players like Eriko and (Cheng or Pi). MD Choong/Lee bt Jung JS/Lee YD (match of the day) Lin/Fairuz bt Laybourn/Paaske Gan/Zakry bt Luluk/Alven Guo/Xie bt Eriksen/Lundgaard Holy cow! This is hard to predict. I will not be surprised (but I will be sad) if I get it all wrong. Quarterfinals are great. WD Gao/Huang bt Ogura/Shiota Wei YL/Zhang YW bt Emms/Kellogg Yang W/Zhang JW bt Cheng/Chien Lee HJ/Lee KW bt Akao/Matsuda In the quarterfinals of the WD, you get to see more non-Chinese, so it's the best round in the WD. XD Lee JJ/Lee HJ bt Eriksen/Schjoldager Zhang/Gao bt Sudket/Saralee Robertson/Emms bt Xie/Zhang Widianto/Natsir bt Laybourn/Juhl I may just be predicting in line with seedings but I tell you, no other rounds are nearly as good as the quarterfinal round. Just look at the lineup. Imagine any potential final lineup, and you will get at least one or two matches here which are just as good, if not better.
I think that Chen Hong should retire. After watching him over the last year. I think he is lazy until he starts losing points. When he's losing bad then he starts to be more aggressive. If he was always aggresive, I think he would be good. But he is a slow starter.
Lilyana Natsir (aka Butet as she is often called by her coach and fellow players) is indeed a very good and promising young player. It's almost unbelievable that she is only turning 21 this year and is already a World Champion. If you remember, she has played WD before....around 2 years ago before she was paired with Nova in XD. She played in Uber Cup 2004. However, it's pretty seldom you will see an Indonesian player competing in 2 disciplines (MD and XD or WD and XD). I guess playing the coach wants to prevent players from having to play too many games in 1 day (Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen played 3 games yesterday). She deserves a better partner than Nova as I have mentioned so many times. Nova has the tendency to lose his concentration and play erraticly.
WOW....3 Malaysian pairs in the semi-final I agree with the first two....and disagree with the other 2