Power, speed, placement, deceptive-ness(spelling?), racket skills, consistency, mentality... etc. Btw when i say consistency, i mean during short amount of time (like a single match), not during the whole career. What player is the most complete (or who has the most of the skills above)? The two players i have in my head are taufik hidayat and Hendrawan. Reason? Taufik= Definetely has power, deceptive-ness, placement, and racket skills. He (IMO) is world class at all four skills above that i have mentioned. Especially racket skills and deceptive-ness, i don't see alot of ppl in the past 20 years who can clearly beat him at it. Also, he is definetely fast and mentally strong, although it is not the world's best. Okay, his mentality is good when he doesn't get a bad line call, but whatever... Consitency? Well, when he is on form he seldom makes mistakes during court. Hendrawan= For sure he has world class consistency and racket skills. Also, he has (IMO) alot of speed and deceptiveness ( i can't think of anyone who can topple him in these two categories by a big margin). i remember tc 2002 final against ROSLIN, where he showed both SUPER speed and deceptiveness. His legs moved SO frickin fast that it looked like a big blur, and doing his trademark dropshots and netplay that i don't think anyone could get it with consitency. MEntality? i'm not so sure... but i don't think it's THAT bad... when i c videos of him i don't think he really struggles to focus during important matches. Maybe the only problem he has is power, but he always seem to make opponents look helpless with his smashes. So i guess, it doesn't matter. ANyways, if i were to choose between taufik and hendrawan in terms of COMPLETE, i think i'll give it to Hendrawan. But Taufik only loses by a very thin margin.
Personally I rate Yang Yang as the most complete player. His defence was superb (seems to be making impossible saves) and his offence was awesome (Once he jumps up for a smash, you can almost be certain it is going to be a kill). He displayed his mental prowess quite a few time and I recall once when he was 0-7 down against Ardy Wiranata. He got back to taking the set and you could have seen Wiranta's face.
rite...i forgot about DEFENSE.. thanks loht... i don't know how yang yang plays since i never watched his videos... btw i think taufik and hendrawan both have excellent defense as well.
awww... party pooper anyways i also think taufik is an excellent player and his backhand is just amazing
Ehh...I find that Taufik and Gade are not quite complete players bexuase both lack in certain areas of the game. For Taufik, his footwork is not as smooth as a lot of the top players and he tends to chance his shots far too much. As for gade, I think that does not have very good mentality as he sometimes gets far to impatient and makes many mistakes (He was showing this even at the 2000 olympics vs Ji Xingpeng). As for current players, I'd say Wong Choon han is quite complete when he does play well (Consistant in single games). However, I think Taufik has the best chance to become a very complete player in the near future. However, if you consider Ji Xing peng recent enough, I would vote for him. He definately had all those attributes except for consitancy throughout his career.
lin dan maybe a good player, but his weak point is his backhand. in the sudirman cup, taufik took advantage of it and almost won.
my favorite player is hendrawan, but I gotta go with Yang Yang being the best. His sideline smashes are impossible to retrieve.
it gotta be Yang Yang the greatest of all time. i remember seeing him play when i was really young. He is such a complete player and he is equally good in his defense. it was after seeing how Yang Yang smashes that prompt me to took up badminton i also remember during his days, the other chinese players such as zhao jianhua , xiong guobao were already very good. and still they were no match for yang yang
I won't say Zhao was no match for Yangyang back then. Zhao surely got more talent back then, but Yang yang was more consistent.
that too. I also think his defense is superior to many players. His backhand is also really nice, but its still better to play around the head. It's weird though, sometimes I think Yang Yang is really lazy.
I agree. When Zhao Jianhua was on fire, his offense was just overwhelming and he was more than a match for Yang Yang. I believe for at least one of the TC it was Zhao/YY/Xiong GB as the Chinese 1/2/3 for singles. But Yang Yang stayed at the top longer and IMO was better rounded. As good as Taufik and Gade are, I don't think they would have been a match for Zhao or YY at their peak.
I think it's unfair to compare player from different era but since its a ''From all time'' subject I find Yang Yang to be very complete. I also find Gade and Taufik to be somehow completed. Gade has everythign but sometimes lack of mental strenght and Taufik has some weird Footwork.
they are #1 and #2 in my book (see viver, i praise older players too ) YY is stronger in mental and ZJ is stronger in physical. Who's #1 depends on which day they play.
i remember zhao at one time was down with injury. i believe that caused him the no.1 spot in china. but again, zhao was inconsistent
i would say Yang Yang. back when i was young, i would never missed his matches. it was him that i eventually got interested into badminton.
It was pneumonia which sidelined him for 1 year. Both Zhao and Yang Yang are great players. But talking about completed player, Yang Yang should be more completed because Zhao's game was 1 dimensional - attack.
