Posts Tagged ‘London’

Great final of the Olympic Badminton Tournament!

(6 augustus 2012)

After the extremely unfortunate Tuesday evening with a disgraceful performance of the 8 Asian ladies doubles players the badminton tournament eventually went very well. Every day the Wembley arena was sold out and last Sunday more than a billion people watched the finals on TV. I really have enjoyed the entire event with the Sunday men’s single final as a climax! It was great that the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation offered a daily live-stream of the badminton tournament making it possible to watch the matches at home. Unfortunately I lacked the financial means to travel to London and attend the matches myself.

Lin Dan did it again. His second Olympic title. I believe it was the best men’s single match I have ever seen. Two players so evenly matched! Both fast and explosive, with an excellent technique and mentally that strong. All credits to Lee Chong Wei who made it to the finals despite the serious injury he got in May. Believe me, he must have a very strong mind. Normally he should be the best player ever, but it is his misfortune that at decisive moments one person is always slightly better.

I even enjoyed watching the ladies finals because in both events they played very offensive. Usually the ladies doubles is dominated by long rallies with infinite clears, but this match showed hard smashes and spectacular defences. With their forehand defence the (Chinese) women try to create the best position to return the shuttle as fast and as hard as possible, which is remarkable.

Of course the great ladies winner was Zhao Yunlei who grabbed not only the ladies doubles title but also the mixed doubles one with her partner Zhang Nan! It’s not a real power mixed doubles like Fischer/Pedersen and Chen Xu/Ma Jin, but they play smart and technically. Zhang Nan plays almost every shot steeply down and his defence is well controlled. Zhao Yunlei is always at the right spot, anticipates very cleverly, plays hard and fast and has a better defence than many men’s doubles players. So after their World Championship also the Olympic title makes them the legitimate numbers one of the world.

Finally the men’s doubles final. Very surprising because I never expected Boe and Mogensen to beat the Koreans. I felt a little bit sorry for Jung Jae Sung because this was his last tournament and I think he is a real hero, but for Europe this was a great and more than welcome success. Unfortunately the final was rather one-sided because Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng were just too strong. After Silver in Beijing it now was Gold in London. The rumours are that this pair will quit playing too, so there will be changes at the top of the men’s doubles! I am already looking forward to Rio!

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The Olympics: Preview mixed doubles

(27 juli 2012)

The male half of the 2008 golden mixed doubles combination, Lee Yong Dae, will this time try to defend his Olympic title. He is only 23 years old but already now one of the greatest double players ever. Together with Ha Jung Eun he will try to equal what the Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling did before: winning two consecutive Olympic Games. It’s going to be a hell of a task for two reasons. Firstly Ha has a very moderate service (8 out of 10 services are flickservices) and secondly there are many contenders for the medals. Out of the 5 events the outcome of the mixed doubles is the most difficult one to predict.

The Beijing silver lady winner Liliyana Natsir from Indonesia will alongside Tontowi Ahmad try to end one step higher than last time. They have proven that they are able to play well in England by winning the 2012 All England.

Naturally also China has likely candidates and based on the draw they may even have two finalists in the ranks. The number one of the world and World Champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei will do their utmost to take that golden medal back home to China. But also Chen Xu and Ma Jin, widely feared for their very hard smashes in combination with subtle net playing, will fight for the highest honour.

Besides we have no less than 5 European pairs in this competition of whom the Danish Fisher and Pedersen are the ones with the highest seeding. They are in one group with the European Champions Mateusiak and Zieba. At the European Championships the Danish lost dramatically from the unleashed Poles. I expect to see both pairs in the quarter finals.

The 3 other European pairs are in Group A. Nice detail is that we will have a repeat of the World Championship final between the British Adcock and Bankier and the Chinese Zhang and Zhao. The latter combination won this match easily, but in the next matches the British have shown to be able to beat them. In short: the mixed doubles tournament is going to be one big spectacle!!!

Prediction:

Gold: Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir

Silver: Robert Mateusiak/Nadia Zieba

Bronze: Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei

For my previews of the other events scroll down

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The Olympics: Preview men’s doubles

(25 juli 2012)

In the men’s doubles there will also be a new pair winning the gold medal as Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan didn’t succeed to qualify for London. In my opinion that’s a shame not only because they lacked only 200 points in the ranking but in particular because they play badminton in a very offensive and attractive way. Nevertheless there are enough good pairs left to make it a spectacular battle.

The silver medallists of Beijing are now seeded first. Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun were world champion four times but a gold medal at the Games is still lacking. Most of the time these guys are unbeatable at World Championships but at the Olympics runner up “only”. Will they succeed to score everlasting fame this time?

Their biggest competitors and also my personal favourites are the Koreans Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung. They have played each other very often and so far the mutual results are in favour of the Koreans. In Beijing they already lost in the first round and since this is Jung’s last tournament I bet that he will do his utmost to end his impressive career in a stylish way.

For Europe there are also chances. Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe have shown before that they have the potential to beat anyone. For both it is their first time at the Games and this could be their only disadvantage. At least they have a good draw and they should be able to win a medal.

There are also a few outsiders to be reckoned with such as the Koreans Ko and Yo and perhaps Koo and Tan from Malaysia too. Leading up to the Games the latter pair has played only a very few tournaments because of disappointing results. They had to focus on extremely hard training supervised by the Korean twofold silver medallist  Yoo Yong Sung. Next week we will see if this strategy will pay off.

My prediction:

Gold: Lee Yong Dae/Jung Jae Sung

Silver: Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun

Bronze: Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe

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Good feelings about my third World Championship

(18 augustus 2011)

I promised to write a report after the weekend of the World Championships last week in London. I apologise for the lack of information during the tournament but it was very hard to get an internet connection.

Monday evening Dave and I played against the strong Chinese pair Hong Wei and Shen Ye. I played against the latter one time before together with my former partner Jurgen Wouters. Shen Ye’s partner was then the multiple world champion Fu Haifeng. At that time Jurgen and I didn’t stand a chance. Bearing in mind our good result against other Chinese at the Bitburger we started our match in good faith.

In the first game we came 5 points behind rather quickly but after we had scored our first point we got the right focus. Although we couldn’t really catch up with our opponents in the first game we still maintained a good way of playing. Especially at the end of the first game we played very well. We managed to eliminate 3 game points and we came to a 19-20 score. With a “net roller” the Chinese grabbed the win of the first game. In the second game we barely escaped each other. Still the Chinese took the lead but after the break the 6-11 gap was reduced. It was typical that our opponents scored from the back court while we were controlling the net. Unfortunately we didn’t even come close to winning the game. We lost with 16-21. Of course I was disappointed to be kicked out in the first round but on the other hand I was proud that we performed well. These guys reached the quarter finals so they belong to the world’s best players. In these big tournaments you also need some luck in your draw and that is what we lacked the last two editions.

As we were only flying back home on Friday we had plenty of time to watch fantastic matches. Let’s see how my predictions for every event ended up.

In the men’s singles I was pretty close. I was right with the four medallists but the title went for the fourth time to Lin Dan leaving Lee Chong Wei empty handed.  I regretted this because I was very much in favour of him. Perhaps gold next year?

The ladies singles was an event full of surprises. Finally it was Wang Yihan who grabbed the title defeating Cheng Shao Chieh. The 2004 World Junior Champion from Chinese Taipei. Juliane Schenk delivered an outstanding performance winning the bronze medal for Germany.

In the men’s doubles the pair I predicted got the title. Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun seem to be almost unbeatable on World Championships. They defeated the number two pair from Korea Ko and Yoo who played a very good tournament. On the other hand Boe and Mogensen again delivered a disappointing performance just like at the Sudirman Cup.  In the quarter finals they lost from Septano and Ahsan from Indonesia who finally won the bronze medal.

In the ladies doubles I predicted the gold and silver medal correctly as well as one bronze medal. Yu and Wang won the tournament with large supremacy. Tian and Zhao conquered the silver medal and  the bronze was won by Maeda en Suetsuna from Japan and quite surprisingly by the Indian pair Ponnappa and Guta.

Also the mixed doubles was won by the predicted pair. The world’s number one pair Zhang and Zhao were a class of their own during the entire event. They defeated the British super pair Adcock and Bankier who played a world class tournament. The bronze medals were for Indonesia and China.

Altogether the Wembley Arena has passed the first serious test and, apart from some minor adjustments to the Hall,  it seems to be ready for the Olympic challenge. In less than 12 months from now new Olympic champions will be born in this hall. I am already looking forward to the TV images!

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Tough draw World Champs

(25 juli 2011)

The draw for the World Championships in London has been published.

Just like last year Dave and I will face a strong Asian combination. On Monday the 8th of August at 7.20 PM we will play against the Chinese Hong Wei and Shen Ye. About a year ago during the Bitburger Open in Saarbrucken we also played a very strong Chinese couple and we managed to surprise them. That is our goal during this wonderful tournament as well. We have two more weeks of preparation left and we will do our utmost to give them a hard time on court!

Last year I made a preview for each discipline and I will do the same this year. So stay tuned this week! The draw can be found at www.tournamentsoftware.com

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