New name, old drive for Christensen By LIM TEIK HUAT star online KUALA LUMPUR: He has changed his name but the desire remains the same - to snap the Asian dominance in badminton. And if there's anyone who can beat the likes of Lin Dan and Taufik Hidayat or deny Lee Chong Wei’s hopes of becoming Malaysia’s first badminton world champion at the Putra Stadium next week, it is Denmark’s Peter-Gade Christensen. The lanky Dane, who dropped Christensen for Hoeg early this year after his marriage, said he believed in his chances of winning the world title despite a tough draw, which puts him in the same half with Chong Wei and Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Given his current form, Christensen will have to play the second seeded Chong Wei for a place in the semi-finals and he is looking forward to it. Incidentally, Denmark is the only country outside Asia to produce a world champion. Fleming Delfs won the inaugural title in 1977 and Peter Rasmussen achieved the feat again in Glasgow 20 years later. Asian players have since won the men’s singles crown since then but Christensen’s miraculous success in the Malaysian Open in January this year has instilled in him the belief that there is never such thing as impossible. Then, he arrived in Malaysia suffering from a severe migraine attack but went on to win the tournament. And he is also the only European winner after eight legs of the Super Series tournaments so far. “The favourite to win the world title is Lin Dan and the second group comprises Taufik, Chong Wei, Bao Chunlai (of China) and myself. We are those who can come from behind to win the title and I believe in my chances. “I take this as a good challenge,” said the 30-year-old after his first training session with the Danish team at the Michael Badminton Academy in Puchong yesterday. However, the fifth seeded Christensen, who lost to Hendrawan in the final in Seville in 2001, is also wary of the spoilers in his half of the draw. Indonesian Simon Santoso is the Dane’s biggest threat. “I have to be careful in the early rounds and surprises tend to happen in the World Championships. “But I am feeling good about my own game going into a major meet. In the past, I wanted to play in a lot of events and tried to do well in all of them. But now I just pick the tournaments to focus on and progress from there,” said Christensen. One cannot discount the affable Christensen as one of the contenders whenever a badminton event is held here. “Malaysia is a big home for badminton and the atmosphere is certainly there. It’s wonderful playing here,” said Christensen, who tends to raise his form here. The Malaysian Open title this year was his second after winning his first at the KL Badminton Stadium in Cheras in 1998. Seven years ago at the Putra Stadium, he sparked a great hope for Denmark to become the first European country to lift the Thomas Cup after he defeated Indonesian Hendrawan in the first match in the final. But Denmark went down 2-3. He also won his first world junior title, the boys’ doubles partnering Peder Nissen, in 1995 in KL.
Just watched the CH/LCW MSF this week (delayed telecast of PO07).Is that why CH kept on clearing to LCW's FH? Gillian Clark was questioning why CH was repeatedly attacking LCW's forehand because it was to no avail.Maybe LCW has since fixed that problem. Am impressed with LCW's win over CH. Not because it was convincing; rather he won with a strong section of the crowd backing CH. Seems like he has developed a crowd switch off mechanism and get into his own zone. WC06 is history now.Winning IO07 has transformed LCW. He realised he can win on his own,with or without crowd support,anywhere.What's most telling is he has won the respect of the MAS press which in the past had always been critical of him, even when he won.Now NST and The Star write about him in favourable tones.To have changed the media's attitude towards him means he has arrived.He's quite a different player today. LCW has left his darkest days behind. He looks to forge ahead;nothing is going to stop him. (BTW, those in Spore who wish to catch the PO07, try tomorrow,Sun am, 7 to 10am ch 22 showing MDF, MSF and WSF.)
LCW tactics improve significantly . We can see his skills is level on par with TH/LD/PG in overall. The main factors to drive him into success recently is his mentality power.. He doesn't fear any 1. On this point, we should give credits to BAM. The players on this generations clearly have more strong mentally compare with the oldies players on their playdays. The other fine example of those results were came from TBH..He ain't fear any Top MD pair in the world while playing against them.
Zhao was more attacking than any player of today. His deception was unreal as well. Its not how the game has changed!! Arbi attacked more than Lei Chong Wei, by far. Its hard to compare era's because all of those talented individuals ( Sun Jun, Hoyer, Frost, Joko, Arbi, Zhao, Yany Yang etc ) would be successful in todays game because they are champions and would adapt to however the game was played. And if Gade is still top 5 and nowhere near the speed he was in 1998 - 2001 the game can't have moved on that much!!! Bring the confident,fresh Gade of 1998 - 2001 and he would whip everyone!!! As for Hendrawan relying on skills ( which were amazing, don't get me wrong ) he was way to fast for Xia Xuanze in the Olympic semi it was untrue - Who for raw speed is quicker than Lin Dan!! ( Xia that is )
Good analysis. Kinda agree with that, hv noticed that LCW's forehand corner clearing is actually a lil weak. During SF in China Masters, TH kept feeding some fast shots to LCW's forehand corner, and rush to the net to kill it off.
Let's not count out Simon and Sony just yet. It is possible for them to beat either LCW or Gade. Just look at what happened to Taufik.
surprisingly SIMON & SONY play so bad here! they both will have no match for PETER & LCW respectively today
I think Simon will give Gade a hard time....Simon came back from a brink of defeat to beat Nguyen, proving that he has good mental to face Gade...
Technically you may be right, but I remain unconvinced about LCW's ability to recover when his rhythm or game is broken. I didn't see it when he played Lin Dan last. His recovery was better than in the past, but still way too many errors in the front court during the recovery period to restablish himslef after a bad call or change in momentum. I don't believe he is aware of what strategy he should use to settle himself and stay in the point. Luckily there aren't too many players who have the capability to force him out his natural game.
I would like to see PG at his best. His form when he won the MO was very good. If he can repeat that, LCW will have a fight. Unfortunately PG had not show much in the last couple of tournaments. I don't know what is wrong but it is not going to stand him in good grounds against LCW, an awesome player who has combined speed with techniques successfully to win the IO and PO.
Hey people, look this media press: http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/8/11/sports/18565509&sec=sports Hugs and kisses! Daniel (http://filipalamy.no.sapo.pt)
PG had to fight against santoso, but did well having lost the first game to take the next two. think this game was a good prelude to tougher games coming up for PG would like to see him play LCW and AS at some point in the c'ship
