What is this I have been hearing about players hating each other and ZN - BYX - LC? Also, there was something about ZN not winning XD Gold in Rio due to tensions with ZYL. How true is all this? What happened exactly?
They split up before that, that's why there was tension. Not sure if their drop in performance was because of that or not, though, they hadn't been as invincible as in 2012 for a while.
I think the drop of performance was more because the double duties both of them doing back then. After ZN played MD, he became more injury prone and weaken his attacks considerably. As for Rio, ZN had to do double duty from day 1 till Final. A shame that they had to face Ahmad/Natsir in SF.
ZN/LC have chance at Swiss Open to win a title (I think) haha Just viewed the draw, what do you think of their chance winning against LYD/KGJ? Surprise Li/Liu, Ou/Ren, He/Tan and Han/Zhou are not participating here..... https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=FB37C55D-4533-47A9-AEE9-EE0F996F1F5B&draw=6
If Liu/Zhang can play like they did against minions, they can win. Also, LYD/KGJ's result is not really great recently. He/Tan and Han/Zhou will participate in BAMTC next week.
Wow most CHN pairs withdrew? Yay Liu/Zhang stayed, maybe because they didn't play in either Malaysia or Indonesia Masters. Their chance winning LYD/KGJ is pretty big I think, I don't see the Korean would do some fast flat exchange that could trouble LC. But let's hope LC will not break under the pressure all through the tournament. In the top half, I don't think Ahsan/Hendra would pose any threat in this tournament because of Hendra's injury. So Liu/Zhang should at least be able to pull it through to Final.
Scratch all that. Liu/Zhang lost in R1. With terrible scoreline. LC was unbelievably useless. Don't know what's wrong with him (though I probably know the answer) ZN scratched his head twice and looked at his coach many times looking for answers. Haha sigh..
LC just doesn't seem to have the concentration/confidence to play anymore. Maybe he could come back after a break and going down a level, winning some matches/tournaments might restore his confidence. He does seem like a mentally extremely fragile player though. Or maybe he has some injury (or fear of one) that's not visible but plays on his mind constantly. Either way, I had hoped China would scratch this pair and try sth new with their best player, but apparently it's not to be. Sad that we won't get to see what ZN could do with someone competent.
I don't know really. After that R1 in AE, we kind of have some kind of expectation, but I guess it's not happening. It seemed as if his mind was somewhere else. ZN had never really given a strong permanent player. First Chai Biao, then they pulled him to XD only, then they tried him out with semi retired FHF, actually had more success than their main MD, Chai/Biao at that time. It's sad really. He is the only successful Male XD player to MD player in CHN. Would CB do worse than LC?
I don't know. Last year I still saw his name with a younger player in some lower tier tournaments. Haven't seen him for a while.
I guess not, but he retired, no? At this point I'd try a young one. Someone a bit like Zheng, fast, firepower - if he has a bit of talent, ZN should be able to groom him nicely. LC is a complete waste of ZN's time at this point.
Zheng Siwei you mean? I think he is out of the question. Not only they want him to focus on his XD for Tokyo at the moment, but I think they are trying to groom him to be a front player if he was going to play MD just like ZN. Of course it's only a guess basing on the pattern they had done before with their XD players. But who knows with the new head coach or vice president. I know I probably kind of overreacted and though felt a bit sorry for LC but it's just too much for me to take after all this time.
I literally meant someone like him - so not him. He didn't seem to have a big talent for front work when he played, similar to LC when he first paired ZN - great pressure from the back, lots of speed, but a definite back court focus. Wang Yilyu, He Jiting, Lu Kai might all be options (although they might want Wang to focus on XD and Lu isn't the type I described )
Oh I thought you meant ZSW. Well they never tried pairing him with ZN but with LC, Lu Kai, FHF back then, so they were obviously thinking of making him the front player when they tried him out with back court players as partners in MD. Personally I'd like to see Zhang Nan with Wang Yilyu more as the latter kind of playing level double with Huang Dongping compared to the more traditional XD like ZSW/HYQ. Then again, they want to keep WYL in XD though HDP isn't being consistently better than the opponent at the net. If they won't split He/Tan or Han/Zhou, at least they should have more available options in the national team? It sounds rather crazy that they are putting all their expectation or responsibility on LC for the "Big Game" if he couldn't even hold himself up in much smaller events. Okay, he was able to pull off a win or two in team events.. Or even if they really are giving up on ZN to defend his Olympics title, at least give him a fresh start. If he could take both LC and LYH for WC bronze, surely he could do it with anyone else. Sigh.. I don't know why I get so worked up by this.
I don't understand your line of thinking here. Why would the guy that's playing more traditional XD with more back court focus be better than the one playing the net more (in XD)?
No, they didn't. The others CHN MD pairs are not registered in Swiss Open. The only CHN MD pair which had withdrawn is Li/Liu (as the first seed here) and the fact is both Li/Liu and ZN/LC are in the top quarter.
The way you made your point seems to indicate that ZSW would be a more front-focused player and WYL more all-around. That seems off to me, given that ZSW actually plays more from the back court. Also, I remember WYL as slightly less reliant on pure physicality, ZSW really leans on his speed a lot. Also his movement looks a bit weird, I always expect his legs to snap at some point because his knees point inwards so often
Oh I didn't say that ZSW was a front focused player. I had thought so from the choice of partners the coaches had tried to pair him in MD a few years ago. It kind of suggested that they kind of expected him to be the front player in MD or so I thought. I might have been wrong. I don't know why but I never really like ZSW playing style, though he might be really fast and strong in attacking. I'd prefer WYL though he isn't as fast. I don't think I have ever seen ZN played with either even in CBSL. ZN has played with Li and Liu before, made quite a pair with Liu actually.