indonesia open. My bet is on this great player called Taufik Hidayat. I hope to be there when the game starts. Whadaya reckon mate? cheers.
slightly off topic. what is the creteria of having 1*, 2* ..... 5*, 6*, 7* tournament??? money or facilities?
Guess it's the money. 'Cause every 5* tournament has $170,000 as the prize while the 6* has bigger value ($200,000 if I'm not mistaken)
I'm actually not a fan of Taufik... Well.. just wish the best players will win.. But we've still got WC to expect.. I wish that the attendance will be good 'cause I realise that the final of China masters is only the day before this tournament ><
The closing date for the registration will be on 6 September. So far, there are still no news about the Chinese team , but The Danish (including Peter and Kenneth) and Korean team have registered . Haven't heard about the Malaysian team as well...
Poor Timing of 6* Tournament Yes! It is a result of very very poor timing. I don't undestand why IBF could not co-ordinating well 6* tournament by leaving time gap so that top notch player could participate. They should concerntrate more on such arrangement in order to get more popular rather than talking about fashy or sexy suit. Now 6* two tournaments becomes like either national championship or like a satellite game without full content of best players . You can see the current China Master too. I thought it was Chinese National Championship after glance throught the draws. And we have yet to see the line up of Asian Championship which due within 1-2 week time.
Chinese team not joining the IO this year... that's the worst news I've heard, ever! Tough luck... >.<
I agree about the timing. I don't know what was wrong with the Korea Open. It has perennially the highest prize money yet a very weak field. I think the last time all the top Chinese players were there was 2002. In 2004, we had the top men's singles but no one else and this year there were no Chinese except their fourth women's singles and second mixed doubles (the WC runner-up as it turns up but a new, weak partnership at that time). I used to think players were saving their strenght for the Japan Open which was always the following week but this year it wasn't and the field was even weaker than usual. Not just the Chinese but Taufik, LCW, and many more skipped it. I am a little confused by your saying "China will only send the youngsters" to Korea in January because a) it already happened last January; and b) according to the schedule, the 2006 Korea Open will be in the autumn. As for Indonesia, who knows why they scheduled it when they did. It should have a high enough profile that they can get a better shake from the IBF. This tournament seems to be notorious for moving all over the calendar. It also seems to suffer from the same disease as Korea. Not just this year but other years, haven't large contingents been missing? Indonesia swept the golds in 2001 because the Chinese team skipped it en masse. Does anyone remember the reason? In any case, perhaps the increase in prize money is not a coincidence but rather an attempt to compensate for the bad scheduling.
