TOTAL BWF THOMAS-UBER Cup Finals 2018 : Group-Stage Matches (20-23 May)

I wouldn't expect much from INA but I expect a fierce fight coming from Greysia/Rahayu vs. Dora/JYF. Please at least earn 1 pt tomorrow.

 

Chen Yufei's opening match jittery performance against MAS Sonia Cheah , despite victory, was slammed by Chinese netizens.

 

Not as bad as HBJ.

 

Can someone please post what Lin Dan said at his post match interview and what Chinese fans on Weibo said about Lakshya Sen.

 

we can try that

 

While I agree with you that HBJ continues to disappoint, I'd like to view that game a little differently. One could focus on HBJ's loss, just like fanboy Morten did, because he was apparently so upset that the underdog scored a point against his favourite and he couldn't celebrate another 5-0. The alternative would be commending a kid who's turned 18 this year and who's already had a major injury, on her flamboyant and creative style of play, which gave her the win against a much higher ranked opponent.
If she continues in that same vein, top 15 or better looks likely.

 

Well you have to admit it's kinda high right?

 

Whether or not it was over 1.15m, he seriously needs to learn to serve lower or bend his knees more if he wanted to save himself from the service fault calls in the future. No point arguing with the service judge.

 

LOL, so much salt -- looks like their (fans & players?) petty little egos cannot take losing a match to the great Niphitphon carrying a newbie? Well, it's understandable -- even if INA become World Champions on Sunday, the THA vs INA MD1 match of Thomas Cup 2018 will be remembered as a classic like Zheng/Chen's destruction by Watanabe/Higashino in in XD match of Sudirman Cup Semi-Finals 2017 (even though JPN lost the overall tie like THA).

Too bad they never learnt a thing from losing to Boe/Mo early on... until Mogensen's brain anyeurism (NOT the minions) beat him -- they are only World No.1 because the greats (Lee/Yoo, Boe/Mo, Cai/Fu, Hendra/Ahsan) are aging/retired, and someday someone else will captialize on their age, injury, difficulties with tournament rules/schedule, etc.

INA is lucky this match was not played in front of a home crowd -- THA are so nice that they are only interested in celebrating their own players, instead of jeering your opponents like in the football (hooligan) "tradition"....

 

To be fair, he's using a tactic fairly common before the new service rule -- which in fact the new service devices were developed to stop...

Many players "cheat" by raising the shuttle slightly the INSTANT right before the serve hoping the service judges won't catch on -- but the new service device does NOT care what you do with your hands or feet: barring the continuous motion rule, if the contact point between the racquet and the shuttle shows up above the opaque double parallax lines, it's a fault.

The height advantage of this trick is minimal, but the disruption to the receiver is great because he/she must mentally re-calculated the trajectory of the serve just before it is made -- as such "last-minute action" service don't fall foul of the continuous motion rule designed to prevent "fake/feint" serving.

This also explains the decision to make the service height on the low side at 1.15m... Unlike tennis, service in badminton is suppose to put the server on the defensive (to balance out having the initiative), NOT on the attack.

 

Always using the excuses that they are WR1 because the legends are retired. You know this can applies to everything in the world. Jeff Bezos is richest man because no one smart enough to create an easy amazon at that time so stop it.

What a sulker lol. In fact, i will say if not because of AhsanHendra, they will have won 2016 Rio Olympics, they already won the most SS in 2016 with new play and tactics. But its too bad, they dont even sulk bcoz of that, why do you sulk so much?

 

That was uncalled for.

They had learnt many things and they had been doing good in improving their play after their loses to Boe/Mo. And the "Greats" you mentioned were in the past and some of them were also "cheating" with their services.

They lost because every "great" player has to lose sometimes and that doesn't mean those "great" players aren't great. You are the one with so much salt.

 

you wrote like you have played Conrad/Kolding or Li/Liu a dozen times.

Height advantage is minimal but disruption to receiver is great. lmao. still Minions never complain about their high serve and still beat them dozen times.

 

Yeah, I was so confused by the THA MD's "rubbish" game-play in 1st game that I didn't realize that it was deliberate, until they kept it up throughout the match....

I mean, WTH was Niphitphon & Namdash doing lifting high clears and lobbing soft drives all over the place that have no speed, power or "threat" at all? Then it dawned on me that the minions were running all over the court to retrieve these "easy" shots and getting pulled out of their favourite positions... Like Boe once said, push Kevin away from the net and he'll be no threat (Kevin WILL try to come forward by playing a drop to the net, & Marcus will be anxiously trying to get back behind Kevin, etc.)

I also realized that the minions like staring down their opponents so much that if you stare BACK, you can probably guess what they going to do next -- e.g. Marcus WILL try to smash you down to create opportunities for Kevin & Kevin WILL try to drop down the net to make you lift the shuttle for Marcus -- so whenever Kevin drops the shuttle, just lift to wherever Marcus isn't and watch him chase the shuttle down... and do it as SLOW/ HIGH as possible to give you all the time you need to receive his smash = no need to worry about Kevin's pace or Marcus' strength.

What's really worrying is that INA coaches didn't seem to catch-on and/or couldn't get the minions to make adjustments (they seem to have just one play-style like Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen) -- and that this happened so early in the tournament -- all the top 10 MDs should be capable of adopting this strategy (if they are ready to "give up" their own strengths or play-styles), so it might all come down to form and/or focus....

 

Well. I predicted that thomas cup is actually a good tournament for the minions to come back from their long pause from big tournaments (because of Gideon's marriage and their supposed injury)..
They are not directly knocked out.

Good wake up call for them.. and they have to.. if they want to have anything to say in the later stages.

As for the service?? Maybe he didn't get the memo while having his honeymoon???

 

And: Kevin and Gideon wasted too much time trying to play drives that they know they will lose. Not that they can't play other things.. sometimes they stuck to the same tactics far too long

Intriguing to see how they will change up their tactics.

 

I think it's only *some* fans whose egos can't take it. No names, of course

And to be fair to the players, they have improved massively in 2017 compared to 2016, where they were significantly below par compared to the top pairs (lee yoo, fu zhang, setiawan ahsan, etc). However, the retirement of those pairs after the Olympics was surely a reason for their rise as well. The relative contribution of the two factors people may disagree on, but it is there.

 

THA didn't give them a choice -- you have to chase all those long beautiful lines created by THA that floated slowly over or past you with no pace or power for you to feed off, so that you have to be the one putting in ALL the effort to speed up or re-direct the shuttle...

It's THA who AVOIDED getting into flat and fast exchanges with the minions, EXCEPT when the minions were already forced out of position!

Notice how often the minions ended up playing side-by-side with the THA MD (which THA is very comfortable with)? Maybe they should start getting use to playing/training like that?

 

The argument here would be that at least they earned their no.1 position by climbing up from the bottom. Unlike some pairs who suddenly popped up on the top because some top players just decided to retire. And up to AE they had proven to be the better than the rest hence no.1 in the world right now. You cannot just say that they are no.1 because some players who weren't even in the list were not around anymore.
Whether they have actually surpassed the retired players are not relevant in their path to be on the top.

If you had been watching them for the past year, you should be able to tell how improved and adaptable they had become. They weren't relying solely only their speed or power. Well, at least until their last tournament. In yesterday's match, somehow they seemed to have forgotten how to play badminton or at least the form they have had before the long break. Their play was like Chinese Taipei open 2015 final against Fu/Zhang.