The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Chong Wei does not want Christensen to become third player to beat him
- Joo-bong starts to reap the fruits of his labour in Japan
- Schenk and Baun lead the way to end China’s stranglehold
| Chong Wei does not want Christensen to become third player to beat him Posted: 15 Dec 2011 04:49 PM PST WORLD No. 1 Lee Chong Wei is seeking personal satisfaction when he takes on Denmark's Peter-Gade Christensen today in a bid to top Group A in the Super Series Masters Finals at the Li Ning Gymnasium. If he wins, the 29-year-old Chong Wei would have beaten all the top players – except for China's Lin Dan and Chen Long – in his long and tiring season this year. "All the players are eyeing my scalp. It is not easy to keep on winning but I will try to maintain my good run," said Chong Wei. "I have lost only to Lin Dan and Chen Long this year ... I don't intend to give Peter the privilege of being the third player to beat me this year." Chong Wei assured himself a place in the semi-finals of the Masters Finals with a sensational 21-10, 21-15 win over an out-of-sorts Simon Santoso of Indonesia yesterday. It was his second successive win in the group, having defeated Sho Sasaki of Japan on Wednesday. Chong Wei feels he is in good physical condition despite playing in his 15th tournament of the year. "It is more about mental tiredness rather than physical ... but I am fine. This is my last tournament and all I need is to give it one final push. Then, I can take a short break before the new season begins," he said. "Lin Dan and Chen Long will continue to be my main challengers leading up to the London Olympic Games and I have to work extra hard to get the better of them." If Chong Wei tops his group with a win over Christensen today, he is likely to face the lanky Chen Long in the semi-finals tomorrow. Chen Long won his first Group B match yesterday when he clawed back from a opening game setback to beat Kenichi Tago of Japan 12-21, 21-18, 21-13. "Chen Long made quite a lot of mistakes in the first game and I took advantage. "But he proved that he is the better player with a strong showing in the second game," said Kenichi, who faces Lin Dan in his second group match today. Lin Dan is expected to make the semi-finals as the Group B champion and may meet Christensen in the other semi-final. And, if everything goes according to plan, fans can look forward to a final Chong Wei-Lin Dan clash for the year. n Men's singles Group A: Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt Simon Santoso (Ina) 21-10, 21-15; Group B: Lin Dan (Chn) bt Taufik Hidayat (Ina) 21-12, 21-19; Peter-Gade Christensen (Den) bt Sho Sasaki (Jpn) 21-15, 21-19. n Men's doubles Group A: Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (Chn) bt Hirokatsu Hashimoto-Noriyasu Hirata (Jpn) 21-12, 19-21, 21-15; Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong (Kor) bt Chai Biao-Guo Zhengdong (Chn) 21-17, 21-19. Group B: Chen Long (Chn) bt Kenichi Tago (Jpn) 12-21, 21-18, 21-13, Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae (Kor) bt Mohd Ahsan-Bona Septano (Ina) 23-21, 21-16; Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen (Den) bt Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong (Mas) 21-14, 21-6. n Women's singles Group A: Wang Yihan (Chn) bt Tine Baun (Den) 21-16, 21-12; Sung Ji-hyun (Kor) bt Juliane Schenk (Ger) 29-21, 21-19. Group B: Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt Sayaka Sato (Jpn) 21-16, 21-13; Wang Xin (Chn) bt Bae Youn-joo (Kor) 21-8, 13-21, 21-13. n Women's doubles Group A: Wang Xiaoli-Yu Yang (Chn) bt Cheng Wen-hsing-Chien Yu-chin (Tpe) 21-17, 21-11; Lok Yan Poon-Ying Suet Tse (Hkg) bt Ha Jung-eun-Kim Min-jung (Kor) 21-23, 23-21, 21-12. Group B: Tian Qing-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Shizuka Matsuo-Mami Naito (Jpn) 21-14, 21-8, Christinna Pedersen-Kamilla Rytter Juhl (Den) bt Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa (Jpn) 21-13, 21-14.. n Mixed doubles Group A: Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Robert Blair-Gabrielle White (Sco-Eng) 21-10, 21-18; Xu Chen-Ma Jin (Chn) bt Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir (Ina) 17-21, 21-7, 22-20. Group B: Joachim Fischer Nielsen-Christinna Pedersen (Den) bt Shintaro Ikeda-Reiko Shiota (Jpn) 21-15, 21-13; Sudket Prapakamol-T. Saralee (Tha) bt Chen Hung-ling-Cheng Wen-hsing (Tpe) 15-21, 21-16, 21-12. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Joo-bong starts to reap the fruits of his labour in Japan Posted: 15 Dec 2011 03:09 PM PST THIS has been a year of highs and lows for Japan's national chief coach Park Joo-bong (pic). After eight long years under the guidance of this legendary South Korean doubles player, Japan finally enjoyed their best season in badminton this year and are now considered a threat at next year's two major events – the Thomas-Uber Cup Finals and Olympic Games. At the ongoing Super Series Masters Finals, Japan continued to prove that they have both quality and quantity with representatives in every event. This is way better than last year – when they had just two women's doubles qualifiers. In fact, their women's doubles pair of Mizuki Fujii-Reika Kakiiwa emerged as the All-England runners-up this year while Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna achieved a breakthrough by winning the country's first Super Series title at the Indian Open and reaching the semi-finals at the World Championships in Wembley. "There is a marked improvement in Japan's performance. For the first time, we took part in all 12 legs of the Super Series this year. We used to depend on our women's doubles but now our men's singles and doubles are also giving their opponents a hard time. We have a balanced side now," said a beaming Joo-bong. Their future's looking good too now that Japan have recruited two new young shuttlers – Kento Momota and Nozomi Okuhara – into the national men's and women's singles department respectively. "Okuhara is our bright young talent. Just last week, she became the youngest national champion at the tender age of 16, beating some big names in our country," said Joo-bong. However, the grin on his face turned to glum when Joo-bong spoke about the quality of sports administration in the Tour throughout this season. For one, he felt that the team managers' meeting during the Super Series could be run more professionally. "On some occasions the referees do not come prepared or lacked technical knowledge of the game. Not much information is given to us, especially on the schedules," said Joo-bong. "How are we to prepare our players when the schedule comes late. At the China Open, we had to wait for the schedule way past midnight ... it is a headache for us coaches. "I think the most professionally run Super Series was the All-England. Their court officials were well-dressed and everything was done professionally. This should be the way to go for future Super Series events." Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Schenk and Baun lead the way to end China’s stranglehold Posted: 15 Dec 2011 03:09 PM PST IT has been a year full of upsets in the women's singles event this year. And two Europeans – Tine Baun and Juliane Schenk – have played their parts in making the women's singles event unpredictable by breaking the stranglehold of the Chinese stars. Denmark's Baun concluded yesterday that it has been an exciting year in the women's singles – especially for the non-China players. "It is very difficult to beat the Chinese players because there are too many good ones out there. But I think some of us have done well this year to give them a good fight," said Baun, who defeated Wang Shixian in the Hong Kong Open recently. "The Chinese camp have so many energetic players all the time that we have to be full of energy all the time ourselves to counter them one by one. This year we saw the most number of Chinese players losing in early rounds." Schenk too had a great time knocking out an army of Chines players in the middle of the Tour this year but admitted that it was difficult for her to sustain her form. "I am not a machine. I had my good time in the middle of this year. "I will wait for my moment and choose the right time to peak – at the London Olympic Games. The good run some of us have had proves that we are not far away from the Chinese," said Schenk. Schenk failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the Super Series Masters Finals after losing both her Group A matches against Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea and Baun yesterday. Baun's fate, meanwhile, will be determined today when she takes Ji-hyun. Ji-hyun and a few others, including Bae Youn-joo of South Korea, India's Saina Nehwal and Thailand's Inthanon Ratchanok, are also growing to be a thorn in the Chinese players' side. And, for the first time, it looks like China are not assured of winning a gold medal in the women's singles event at the London Olympics next year after all. Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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