i think judging Zhou Mi current performance, she could match the level Zhang Ning and Xie Xangfang play. She could be the biggest threat for the CHN Team for now and the years to come. Zhou Mi is 27 yrs. old. She could play for at 5-6 years if she wants to like Zhang Ning who is now 32 yrs. old but still in the top peak form of her badminton career. I think Zhou Mi would play a major role for HK if given chance to play on the UBER CUP next year. Considering already have Wang Chen and Yip. They could even pose a threat for CHN team if Zhou Mi and Wang Chen outplay Zhang Ning and Xie Xanfang. And Zhou Mi already have big experience in Major Tournaments like that. She already won Asian Games Gold back in 2002, World Silver Medalist 2003, Olympic Bronze Medalist 2004, Uber Cup Champion 2003. That's already a big list for a player. Im just wondering if LYB would allow Zhou Mi to represent HK on 2008 Beijing Olympic if Zhou Mi would be the major favorites for Gold in the Women Singles Event. I think ever player if qualified and well-deserve the spot should be given the chance the play, Li yongbo should put the interest for CHN team set aside to make the competition in the Women Singles Event more entertaining for the viewer and the Champion truely deserve the title. She truely help Wang Chen to uplift her game in Indonesian Open where Wang Chen win the women singles event.
Devin Lahardi/Lita Nurlita win their first title as a pair after a straight set victory over their compatriots Anggun Nugroho/Nitya Krishinda 21-16, 21-15. They should rise up the ranking tables to 50ish with the additional 5000 points here. Their next tournament will be the Thailand and Phillipines Gold Grand Prix. Semi-final placings in both tourneys will see them inside the top 25. Meanwhile, Chan Chong Ming/Hoon Thien How have also won their first title as they beat Albertus Susanto Njoto/Yohan Wiratama Hadikusumo in rubber-sets 21-14, 20-22, 21-11 in a match that lasted almost an hour. They will be in the top 25 by next week. Once again, Rexy's mixing and matching have slowly begun to bear fruits. PBSI should be daring enough to break up underperforming pairs!
I saw the final between Andre and Wong live today, and I really think he's a player for the future. There's an x-factor about him, and the way he composed himself and controlled the rallies was very impressive for a player his age, especially against an experienced campaigner such as Wong. I'll be watching his progress closely from now on. Oh, and Zhou Mi may be getting old, but she played very well today. And for those lucky enough to watch the game live today, you can see that she can do the splits rather well A very nice girl too. Joe P.
Hi Man, PBSI sent the yunior players (not Senior Players). Malaysia sent a few senior players such as: Wong Chun Han, M Roslin Hashim, Lee Tsuen Sheng, Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif, Mohd Fairuzizuan, Chan Chong Ming, Thien How Hoon. But a lot of malaysia senior players lost to indonesia player. So very bad performances for malaysia. Good performance for Indonesia, Sent yunior and take 2 golds and 1 silver. Very fantastic to Andre beat malaysia MAN Single senior players..hhaaa
Rise of INA? Agreed that Msia has a bad campaign... sending so much senior in the men single.. I am expecting them to win it. Msia really need more YOUNG GUNS in the MS section! There is always a circle going on The badminton scene between china, iNa & msia. Maybe is INA turn now?
Agreed. Qualifying should be played over two days. Should be maximum number of 2 rounds per day for every event. In most people's hearts, ZM and WCH should be ranked higher. However, the ranking system cannot be emotional in this matter. If the system start ranking people according to its whim, the arguments will never end. People will start arguing that Boonsak should be ranked higher than Lin Dan and that Andre Kurniawan should now be in the top 10. Please let the players work for their own ranking. In a 32-draw, a top-16 seeding is as good as seeding all 32 players, because those who are officially unseeded will virtually be seeded 17-32. It does not make sense. Draws must have an element of luck involved to make it exciting. Also, seeding to 16 does not guarantee that good players do not get knocked off early. There are many dangerous floaters outside the top 20. In addition, if all the time we only see the "good" players in the final stages, what does it say about the competitiveness of badminton.
Against any other team, China can safely take both the doubles matches. So, they only need to win one singles match to take the tie. With Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang spearheading the singles team and a good number of players who can take the 3rd-singles role, it's extremely difficult to imagine them losing to anybody. Even the rest-of-the-world team would be hard-pressed.
The Malaysian MS squad was practically derailed by a single person, which was unexpected, even though Andre came off a good campaign in the Indonesian Open. In the MD, Malaysia used a single pair to derail the entire draw, but it was expected. Malaysia had top seeds in WD and XD, but I never expected them to win. I never expected them to lose so early either, so it was a bit disappointing.
Errr...not exactly....Anggun Nurgroho, Lita Nurlita, Devin Lahardi can't be considered junior anymore (esp Anggun). Lita and Devin are 24 yo while Anggun is 25. The fact that they are not in the main team doesn't mean they are junior players.
The seeding at NZ Open is practically a joke. We all know that Chan/Hoon's only obstacle is the HK and INA pairs. What I didn't expect is Joanna Quay to crumble so badly at the first round in both her events...despite being top seed. That was really a shocker.
Oh...and Andre Kurniawan isn't Pelatnas player. We should be grateful for Djarum for their constant support of the junior players. We will definitely see more of them in the Vietnam Satellite next week.
The seeding is based on the world ranking, so to improve the seedings, you must first improve the world ranking. The most direct improvement (my humble opinion only) I can think of is for the doubles ranking to rank each player seperately, instead of ranking two players as a pair. That way, when pairs are split, each player still retains his/her points that was earned with the previous partner(s). Very straightforward. Chan/Hoon would have been top-seeded in the NZ Open this way. The current ranking/seeding for doubles is too convulated, what with notional rankings etc. etc. In fact, when I have the time, I would like to create a seperate thread with my proposal and then invite people in this forum to attack my proposal.
Both 1-8 seeding and 1-16 seeding approaches have their pros and cons, so I remain neutral here. Re. WCH's case - WCH was afterall on MC most of the time in the last year and therefore was caught up by many younger players who we assume are inferior to him. As he just came back from injury, I thought he could have been more patient by avoiding SS at the early stage (thus not to wear himself out) and instead focussing on GP Gold events to pick up WR points. Afterall, the champion of a GP Gold event will earn 7000 points, only 2200 points less than a SS winner. Now with his runner-up effort in NZ Open, he will earn 5950 points which is only 470 points less than a SS semi-finalist but 910 points more than a SS qf loser. Isn't it a much better deal than not being able to get through the qualifying rounds in SS? Anyway, the 5950 points will bring WCH back to top-25 by coming Thursday.
No, the seedings of the double events are not exactly based on the world rankings. I thought you were aware that since early this year, the IBF have been incorporating the points earned by two paired up players with their previous partners within the last 12 months (but the points are fed into a complex formula before they are incorporated). Otherwise, KKK/TBH wouldn't have been seeded in AE because they were ranked below top-20 by the end of KO, if I'm not wrong.
The calculation of the notional rankings ARE based on "each player's points that was earned with the previous partner(s)". I find the formula for notional rankings quite fair because it retains two major general rules in calculating any player or pair's WR points, (1) only the points earned within the last 12 months are counted; (2) only the top-10 point earning events are counted. There is a "discount" element though - 80% of the points earned with previous partner(s). This is because a new pair is afterall a new pair and under normal circumstances, the two players need some time to build up their mutual understandings and improve their collaboration, despite how good they were when they played with different partners. CCM/HTH's notional rankings were below the HK pair because prior to NZO, CCM/KKK only retained points they earned in 3 events from last May till they broke up (points earned in 3 more events were expired, namely, MO, SO and KO). HTH/TBH retained a little bit more. However, CCM/HTH didn't do well since they paired up as compared to the HK pair within the same period of time until NZO.
