Pretty sure he has sweet memories of the WC2007 win there and the thomas cup demolishing he unleashed there in 2010.
Carolina will only play in a tournament that she can at least be in the final. I really enjoy seeing this girl playing on court except for her way of shouting.
Outside of the Badminton community, even in Marin's hometown of Madrid; more people have heard of Larcher de Brito. Tennis is huge there. Badminton is a fledgeling.
yes, absolutely right. LD has sweet memories in malaysia 2007 world championships : the 2nd MS to win 2 titles in WC history in thomas cup, there are only 4 countries to win the trophy ; Chn, Mal, Ina, Jpn Ina 2004, Jpn 2006, Mal 2010, Chn 2012 LD won all of them...abosolutely the first and perhaps the only MS to achieve this feat, especially as MS1 with 100% winning records for the entire tournament(s)
Dope or no dope. Atleast LCW would never have said I don't want to to his fans. Even after losses, he would have been happy to oblige with a smile. Can't say the same about especially LD and ocassionally even TH and PG (1999-2005 era)
Change that from final to win. This is the same girl who picked the International Challenge circuit over the GP circuit. She believes in peak form Tiger Woods mantra of "If you are not ready to win, don't play."
Frankly, LXR already far exceeded my expectations by overcoming Line K, Akane Y , Wang YH and Saina N, the latter three each in three-setters. In the final today, I was expecting to see her go down in a one-sided match to Carolina Marin. But when she surprisingly took G1, 21-19, and was leading most of the way in the 3rd set, my hopes were lifted against my better judgement. However, at 15-10, as reported in the Chinese media, cumulative fatigue set in and thereafter it was suddenly and quickly downhill all the way. I watched the match again and confirmed my belief that she was not able to play her usual fast,aggressive attacking game, her movement hampered esp when forced to change direction, sluggish, her judgement clouded, and every time the rally was prolonged she was often the first to suffer and erred. Her main weapon , the smash, was few and far between, and there's hardly any outright smash winners, rare for her. I daresay, the next time the two meet, LXR will prevail.The long injury layoff has happily compelled her to acquire a rallying stroke playing style when needed as is the case now. In fact, throughout this tournament that's what she did round after round for lack of match fitness to play her favoured highly offensive game. Right, she has become a complete all-round player now.
Yes, it was surprising. If Chen Long lost the match I would understand as he might be stressed or bummed out, but that wasn't the case. It was in a private area, there was just around less than 10 people outside (it was a walkway, we were all walking), and then out came Chen Long with two other China coaches from a private official room. Looked like a therapy room. It caught us off guard, we were all shocked and didn't shout or anything. Most of us were like "Wow! Chen Long..", but he didn't even looked at us. At least the coaches accompanying him gave us a glance and a smile, but CL looked straight ahead and just continued walking to where he was headed to. A young teenage boy followed him by his side and asked him in Mandarin if he could get a picture but CL mumbled something along the lines of "I don't want to" ("wo bu yao"). Also, there is a private badminton court underground the stadium where players were allowed to warm up or train there apparently.
Don't get wowed so easily by all the prima donna super stars. The only top players humble enough to stay grounded in today's game are Ratchanok and Tien Minh Nguyen. The other top players need behavioral lessons from the likes of tennis' Nadal or Federer. Only then will fans be attracted to badminton.
Chen Long simply loathes the reporters or anyone asking him about his rivalry with Lin Dan or anything about their matches. So every time somebody approaches him and speak English which he doesn't understand, he will immediately turn down any request. Or he's just busy and you caught him at the wrong time, maybe others have already posed for photographs with him. Or it could be he has just been interviewed by the Malaysian press who asked him about becoming Lin Dan's successor and his second victory over him, etc. http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2015-04-05/19447565852.shtml
Not true, I was staying in Berjaya Time Square hotel last year and after LCW won in the finals me and a friend headed back to the hotel and were surprised to see him standing outside the lifts talking to Tago. I thought it would be an awesome opportunity given his win to get a photo with the man... asked him nicely and eveything but he simply said "sorry I'm busy ATM." Both of us plus some random lady took the lifts up with him and I was really tempted to ask him again but my friend sort of said just let it go. The whole ride up he was just texting and scrolling through his phone, and we ended up getting off on the same floor as him. Dunno how he was busy; and I'm not saying he was obliged to do anything, but it wasn't a bad time... so was really taken aback by his response.
Yeah, definitely surprised given how everyone says he's really nice and always obliges to photos etc. If I had caught him on a bad day or if he was in a rush or something, no worries I understand. But we asked him straight after he finished his conversation with Tago as we were going into the lift with him. It was an awkward ride up.
But then there are so many youtube videos of LCW entertaining fans, crowds, organisers, opponents after tournaments. And unlike the other top players, he always used to smile for the camera (his wife didn't). Hard to believe that an entire image can be constructed. :-(
Your guess is as good as mine, dunno why it was different that day. Given the win I thought he'd be more than happy to pose for a shot. Possibly just a one off for him, and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's an overall nice guy, but I must admit I lost a lot of respect for him after that.
You are in Australia so you will understand this reference. It happened with me with Rohit Sharma in 2009 Irani Cup. While he did posed for pics and autographs, he acted all starry and grumpy for a kid who was out of the team then; while his seniors like Ajit Agarkar, Wasim Jaffer and S Badrinath were very gentlemanly. Even then superstar Sehwag was more approachable than Rohit. Other juniors of that team like the then uncapped Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and in the periphery Wriddhiman Saha/ Pragyan Ojha were happy to oblige.
Mmm I mean I can understand why sports celebrities can get grumpy given that people are constantly approaching them for photos/ autographs etc. at the most inconvenient of times or when they're in their everyday clothes. But if you are playing/ promoting at some sort of sporting or promotional event then you should expect people to request these things because they admire you... if it's not at an inconvenient moment why not? But at the end of the day they don't really need a reason to say no either Still not happy with LCW At least he gave an answer, some of the Korean players I approached don't even look at you, they stick out their hand as if they're saying hold on and just hope you'll leave them alone. LYD literally brushed off one of my friends when they saw him walking back to the hotel one late night.
