Badminton Day 2 & 3 - Wong "CHUN" Han and Maria Kristen does the unexpected

Hey Folks,

Sunday was the second day of the Badminton competition with the early rounds of the Women's singles and doubles. Top-seeded Xie Xingfang and Athens gold medalist ZHANG Ning, won their opening matches in women's singles with little struggle. Not much talk about the Sunday's game.

Let's talk more about today's games in Day 3. Most of the seeded Men's and Women's players entered the courts today. To my surprise, we had 4 upsets today. Firstly one of my predicted finalists in the Women's singles, Tine Rasmussen; she went down to Maria Kristen in three games. Maria once again used her fighting spirit to come back from a game down to win 18-21, 21-19 and 21-14. Looks like we have a new contender in town… Maria will be climbing the ranks faster than I thought.

In another Women's singles match, World No. 15 Saina Nehwal of India beat sixth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in the Badminton Women's Singles round of 16. Saina lost the first game 19-21, however came back strong in the second and third to win 21-11, 21-11. I think its Saina’s first ever win over Wang Cheng.

The third upset is more of a shocker as the defending Olympic Women's Doubles Champion China Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen were upset by unseeded Japan's MAEDA Miyuki and SUETSUNA Satoko 21-8, 21-23 and 14-21. Looks like Yong Bo’s chances of more than 3 Gold’s looks slimmer…

Next, we had the defending Olympic Men's Singles Champion Taufik entering the court in his first match against Wong "CHUN" Choon Han. Taufik, didn't look himself (well I dont think anyone can recover from dengue that fast) in the game while Choon Han looked determined and fully fit to take on Taufik. The opening game was a point to point fight whereby Choon Han came out tops at the end. There were some debatable line calls however, non of the players really made a fuss. Taufik gave his best in the game however it was not enough to stop Choon Han from causing the fourth upset of today.

To me, Choon Han dominated the rallies and he was fighting for every shot (Even made a few dives to save some of Taufik’s smashes – not bad for a 31 year old chap). Taufik however looked weak and we could see that his concentration wasn’t fully focused on the however, he managed to create some good moments in the game with some good trick shots and some good defense. Choon Han however played a more consistent game; hitting some very good net plays and some powerful and played a more aggressive game to win 21-19 and 21-16.
The third upset is more of a shocker as the defending Olympic Women's Doubles Champion China Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen were upset by unseeded Japan's MAEDA Miyuki and SUETSUNA Satoko 21-8, 21-23 and 14-21.

Besides all the upsets, the favourites managed to cruise thru to the last 16 with ease. I've selected the top pix from day 3... I'll let these pix tell you the story.. Images are from Getty Images, for more of these fantastic images visit gettyimages.com.


(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

(Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)


(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)


(Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo by: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

In my opinion, you should expect more upsets to come in day 4.. Till then do come back to my blog for more updates...

Ciao da mao..

Olympic Journey with Zhang Ning

Hey fellow Shuttle freaks.. How's it going? Hope all you guys are having a smahing weekend and you all had the chance to watch the best opening ceremony in an Olympic Games yesterday.

I was surfing you tube for some badminton videos and I found this video of Zhang Ning's preparations for the Beijing Olympics. She amazes me as a player and as a person. At 33 she's still playing the game she loves and she is still giving more than 100% in hopes to defend her title she won 4 years ago. To do so, it takes a lot of hard work in training to be in the competitive condition.

This video is amazing as it shows you the insights of a Chinese badminton player... It also shows you how Zhang Ning started her career in badminton and what badminton means to her. The video also gives you an insight of player preparations before her game and her life besides badminton. You can also see a clip of Zhang Ning playing a game with Mew Choo (M'sia) and during the 11 point break, you can hear what Li Yong Bo's advice to her was. I always thought Yong Bo was the kind of coach who would use forceful words to motivate you but this video shows otherwise.

In Badminton you start playing at a young age which is before 11 years old.. by 12-13 years old you normally start dedicating more time training and you’re playing district and small club competitions. By 18 – 21 you would already know if you have the chance to represent your country and if you are a world contender. Not everyone make it thru to this stage. When you start playing for your country, you will want to be No. 1 and it takes a even harder job to become No. 1. At the end of the day, not everyone can achieve what Zhang Ning has and this video shows your what exactly it takes to be No. 1.. This video is great stuff and I'm sure you'll enjoy it...











Ciao da mao!

Badminton Day 1 - Maria Kirsten advances

Maria Kristen Yulianti of Indonesia kept the Indonesian hopes alive in the Women's Singles competition as she fought hard in her opening round againts Juliane Schenk of Germany.


Image source: Nbcolympic.com (Getty Images)

Maria lost the first set but managed to pull herself together to win 18-21, 21-13, 22-20. It's never easy for a person to play their first round first olympics and especially when you are down the first set, it's never easy to come back. Well done to Maria who remained mentally focused to stay and win the game. Maria reminds me so much of Susi Susanti; She has similar styles of stroke play, footwork and movement around the court. However Susi was at her peak when she won the 1992 Olympics. I'll give Maria a couple of years to grow and I'll bet she'll be challenging the Chinese women's players for the singles tittles.

Here are some other first round matches:

Women's Singles:
Eriko Hirose of Japan defeated Iceland's Ragna Bjorg Ingolfsdottir 21-6, 19-7 (retired).
Larysa Gryga of Ukraine defeated Italy's Agnese Allegrini 21-15, 21-11.

Men's Singles:
Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland defeated Estonia's Raul Must 21-14, 21-15.
Marc Zwiebler of Germany defeated Ireland's Scott Evans 21-18, 18-21, 21-19.

Stay tuned for more updates to come..

The Badminton Battle Dome

Two days to the start of the Biggest... I mean BIGGEST, badminton tournament ever in 2008... With a total of 172 players (86men and 86 ladies) registered for this coming tournament, I believe this time around there would be tons of exciting and memorable moments for us spectators and for the players.

Many of you have already seen how the Football, Aquatic and basketball stadiums look like. Since there is not much seen or heard about the badminton stadium, I figured why not just talk a little about the badminton arena where the badminton warriors clash head to heads for the ultimate badminton glory.

Venue: Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium
Location: Beijing University of Technology
Total Seating: 6,900 pax
Total land surface: 22,269 sq m

3D Birds eye view.. Looks very impressive for a badminton stadium.

Inside view of the courts, seating area and the ceiling.

The stadium looks really huge from the outside; however it’s sad to see that only 6,900 people can watch the finals in there. I was hoping that, from the outer look of the stadium, it would fit 10,000 - 15,000. Well, good side about the 6,900 seating space is that when Lee Chong Wei plays any Chinese players, the taunting will not be that bad :) The rubber courts should be the standard one used for all major tournaments and so would the shuttles. The only thing that the players should worry about would be the lighting and the wind.

According to Rexy Minaky (Malaysia's doubles coach) in the NST, "The players are fine with the lighting and were only little concern with the wind. BUT all players will face similar conditions so we all just have to accept these things." I do agree that wind would be a factor in any big stadiums plus it will be even a bigger factor since it’s a new stadium. I like what Rexy said about all players will be facing similar conditions... This reminds me of what we were taught before by CIKU and my dad - "your opponents will play in the same courts as you and in the same conditions, so if you want to win, stay focused on the game and not on the excuses."

Will we see the winds change powers away from China at the badminton courts? We'll just have to wait and see who will be Kings and Queens to rule the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium.

Ciao da mao