badminton news

it's badminton world the show that bringsyou all things badminton from the four corners of the globe. in the next 30 minutes we roll backthe years discuss the present and predict the future on the who's who of the game in theworld of men's and women's singles

also we speak to a former badmintonqueen who combined by grace with a winning attitude and of course we bring you the latestworld rankings and results from the nineteenth addition of the worldchampionships

welcome to another episode of badminton world probably the most interesting and atthe same time the most difficult question to answer in the badminton world is who is thegreatest shuttler of all time the question may be far fromoriginal but is endearingly compellingwith the superlatives lavished on lin dan today we measured by the same standard throughoutthe fifties, sixties, and seventies would it be fair if we put wong peng soon, dave freeman in the fifties, or ferry sonneville andtan joe hok in the sixties

in the same elite pool as the stars of thenineties or the present millennium.where does the present batch stand in the scheme of things badminton world explores this question cross-era judgment or conclusion inchoosing the best ever in any field is difficult to make. is it fair to compare rudy hartono balletic grace intricate net play, and 8 all englandtitles long before the world championships was inaugurated with lin dan supremacy and two olympic titles on top of five world championships.before china's entry into the world elite

the europeans reigned supreme."back in in those days it was very muchthe danes were very very strong great britain, england players were very good too swedish players german players.but you have to remember it was very very different because of course thechinese players weren't playing on on world tour, nor with the southkoreans, so of course they are two the big powerhouses nowadaysand if they weren't playing at the time and of course that gave opportunities to someof the european players" in track and field the 100-meter dash

is the blue ribbon event. likewise inbadminton singles remains the biggest drawcard across all eras the first asian to bag the unofficialworld title in the form of the all england championships was malayan wong peng soon he built his reputation based onmasterful footwork and powerful strokes that earned him fourall england titles and three thomas cups and the moniker of the great wall.others fortunate enough to be part of the sixties might suggest erland kops, the formidable dane who won7 all england men's singles

and four doubles titles before worldchampionships were inaugurated in 1977 but all competed before china entered theinternational arena before han jian, yang yang, and zhaojianhua ruled the rules paving the way for lin dan to be where he is today.lee chong wei has no doubts as to who is the greatest among them all "i think right now from yesteryears tothe present it will have to be lin dan because he's the onewith the most titles

at the world championships,twice at the olympics three world titles. i think he's the mostfamous player by far" if not for lin dan's presence, chong weiwould have amassed the titles that matter - the olympic gold andthe world title that would have earned chong wei the right tobe considered on par with those legends of your. but lin danappears to be head and shoulders above the rest. he has a long list ofadmirers who share chong wei's sentiments. "as a player i really admire lin dan because he is really a strong personality

he's a great sportsman and i've known him since junior times and the way he developed and the way he is right now and all the progress,it's really really great and he's representing oursports in such a great way which i really appreciate""i actually don't admire any player but if i have to name one it's lin dan"observers believe lin dan combines the best of china's two top shuttlers in the eighties andnineties. lin dan's repertoire has the

yang yang's agility, precision, cross-court play and powerfulsmash. he allies that with the zhao jianhua's deceptive play, court craft and brilliance. all threehappened to be dynamic attacking left-handers. like yang yanglin dan can launch attacks from unexpectedly great heights cutting the shuttle short or exploding itinto corners. he can create cat-and-mouse ploys coaxing the shuttle to the net and thenflicking it disguisedly to each

corner and most characteristically he canturn defense into attack and back with fluidity. but turn backthe clock further in the era of rudy hartono there was one player who inflicted heavydefeats on title winners albeit in friendly matches. the greatestof them all, some say it was tang xian- hu. tang has been described aseasily the smoothest and neatest player.agile with immaculate strokeplay,

tang seldom used his backhand. legend hadit that when his opponents smashed he returned the smash even before hisopponent could recover from it. among his conquests were kops and svend pri. the outside world was deprived though of a player who made badminton look simple.in short he was like the fastest version of wong peng soon if tang was the best attacking player,hao jia chang was the best defensive player with the sound attacking play. unfortunately they did not play intournaments organized under ibf

the forerunner of bwf."i have enjoyed playing badminton from a very young age when i became an athlete i achieved a lot great results untili reached a certain age then i stopped after i became a coach i produced a lot of great players andsome went on to become champions as well" among those tang mentored wasironically lin dan. before him it was li ling wei, han aipingand the indonesian generation that

boasted of alan budikusuma, ardy wiranata, andhendrawan just before lin dan wreaked havoc thoughthere was taufik hidayat "i'd say he is amazing. he is one of the bestplayers of all time i would say because what he brings is not just quality of the game but also the styles which he brings it on the smooth fluidity and the deceptionand the net game. i think overall he's somebody who's true to watch for

all of the world you don't have to befrom indonesia to appreciate what taufik does. i think across the world people love him.""well first of all through the years from around 2002, 2007/8 he was one of the best players in the world of course 2004 he was olympic champion, 2005 he was world champion well i think is one of the most skillful playersthat's ever played men's singles." time however is right for the world towelcome a new generation

an intriguing issue: what the pretendersto the throne hail from asia or the old continent."i think it's very obvious that i would have to save viktor axelsen in the men's singles he is an excellent player. i'm trainingwith him every day and i'm just very very impressed thatthe level he's playing at right now he's for sure a lot better than i waswhen i was 18 and i'm sure that he will have a bright future ahead of him he's also one of the most dedicated boys i've ever seen and and that goes for

any kind of sports, education, anythingi've never seen a guy at this age for suchdedication i think he is definitely the one to look out for inthe future." what about youngsters from other nations"that's a very good question i'm not quite sure who is gonnabe the next ones from china but chen long is not that old and i saw gao huang play as well in china open not so long ago he did really well so ithink he has a chance of becoming a very good player as well

but i think chen long is gonna be herefor many years so he's probably gonna have a lot of good fightswith both me, jan and viktor" chen long is seen as the bestplayer to succeed lin dan. "china, it will be chen longbecause he is younger than me and he's now very strong. maybe kenichi tago i think mostly it's from china, china is thestrongest with those, du pengyu, and wang zhengming, those few."so we leave the final word of this segment to the future of

badminton, chen long."the most impressive achievements are the thomas and uber cup this year.every victory is important and i remember them all. the final goal of course is the 2016 olympics but we will work towards it step by step." badminton no sport comes closestay tuned as we discuss who was the greatest ever women's singles shuttler

only on badminton world."i am tang xianhu (tang hsien hu) stay tuned to watch badminton world." welcome back to badminton world.badminton is the fastest racket game with some describing playing badmintonis like playing chess at two hundred miles per hour this requires a combination of explosivepower, speed, agility and strategy but technological innovations havegreatly influenced today's practitioners badminton has become technology-oriented. as a result the world welcomes strongergrip and power cushions for shoes

light-weight but powerful rackets, aerodynamic shuttles and video technology driven by the national sports institute, malaysia has been the end-user of sports science technology for more than a decade with two silver medals from two editionsof the olympic games as returns on investments. in helping lee chong wei bring home thesilver medal in 2012 the sport team from the nsi developedand in-house software application for tactical analysis as the teamwere based in bath university in england. when chong wei tore a tendonin his ankle during the thomas cup tie

in may 2012 there were fears he would not be able torecover in time for the olympics three months later. the fact that he notonly recovered but defended his silver medal after coming close to defeating lindan with testimony to the work done by the specialist as well as nsi medical and physicalconditioning team with a program that is technologicallydriven and ably supported by reliable medical team,

malaysia continues to strive for excellence. the topic as to who is the greatestwoman shuttler is equally intense as the debates on the men's section the world has seen a long list of starswho can lay claim to the title namely lene kã¸ppen, judy devlin,li ling wei and susi susanti but for grace under pressure,brilliance in mental warfare, remarkable endurance,heavenly speedy footwork, and sense of timing, it has to be susi susanti.susi compensated for her lack of power and shot variety with an amazing record

against most of the top players of her day.li ling wei along with han aiping stood on top of the women's singlesfor several years when you look at the revolving door oftop singles players from china you get a great appreciation of what ittakes to stay at the top for an extended period of time. judy hashman had something likeseventeen all england titles divided among all the disciplines. most of themodern-day players from china have not had the longevity or absolute dominance to be among thebest. at 18, ratchanok intanon is already a

world champion and is perhaps the most genuine threatto china's dominance. the three-time world junior champion has made thetransition into the senior section with consummateease. with the title won in guangzhou, a strong signal that she is here to stayfor quite a while. among the names for the future is tai tzu ying. a super series finalists on her 16th birthday, taiwan has first super series in japan atthe end of september 2012 aged just 18. it has been a continualrise up the rankings that started with

her appearance in the singapore superseries final in june 2010 and the semifinal appearance in france.the all england super series was the catalyst for his success in japan sung ji hyun and bae youn-joo of korea'shottest prospects to rediscover the glorious days ofbang soo-hyun golden performance which culminated with olympic gold in 1996 no sport comes close.coming up on badminton world an exclusive interview with the queen ofwomen's singles susi susanti "hi i am susi susanti.you're watching badminton world"

welcome back to badminton world china's lin dan and thailand's rachanokintanon waltzed their way into the record books picking up the men's and women's singlestitle respectively at the wang lao ji bwf worldchampionships 2013 in guangzhou china, as indonesia showed signs of revivalwith two titles of their own. defending champion, hometown hero andwild card entry lin dan picked up his fifth worldtitle when malaysia's lee chong wei retired match point due to cramps.

in the women's singles ratchanok intaononbecame the youngest world champion of either gender, as her sensational win overworld number one li xuerui ended china's decadal domination in theevents. indonesia took the men's doubles throughmohamad ahsan and hendra setiawan who beat denmark's mathias b0e andcarsten mogensen 21-13, 23-21 and also the mixed doubles bytontowi ahmad and liliyana natsir who beat top seed xu chen and ma jinin a nail-biting finish to pick up their third world title. wang xiaoli and yu yangclaimed the women's doubles title over

jang ye na and eom hye wonof south korea to retain the title they won inlondon two years earlier. now let's take a peek at the worldranking so far despite the fifth world title in the baglin dan is only at 98th place as lee chong wei remains firmly in the drivingseat on top of the men's singles vietnam's nguyen tien minh is at numberfive, the highest in his career while indonesia's tommy sugiarto isstill the big boys' league at number six li xuerui remains the top-ranked women'sshuttler despite the final defeat to thailand's ratchanok intanon

who climbed over germany's julianeschenk to take the number two spot. and making her debut in the top tenwomen for the first time is p.v. sindhu from india ko sung hyun and lee yong dae are firmlyon top of the men's double section followed by indonesia's mohamed ahsanand hendra setiawan who climbed three spots after winningthe world title. world championships runners-up mathias boe and carsten mogensen areat number three. in the women's doubles there are nochanges in the top five with wang xiaoli

and yu yang remained the top pair the same story goes in the mixed doubleswith no changes in the top five with china's xu chen and ma jin remaining on top despite losing the world final the pickup events in october are thesuper series premier, yonex denmark open from the 15th till the 20th as well as the bwf world juniorchampionships in bangkok from 23rd october until the 3rd of november. for moreinformation you can visit bwf official website.

this month we have a treat for badmintonfans as we speak exclusively to a player who had won it all. indonesians across the nation and theglobe were united in immense pride and joy susi susanti garnered indonesia's first gold medal atthe boston olympics in 1992 later on alan budikusuma, her husband-to-be completed a memorable double by takingthe men's singles gold more than two decades later susi no longer house limelight the greatest ever female badmintonplayer to come out of indonesia

is content doing development workbehind the scenes but she may hold the key inuncovering future susi's we ask her of her memories in barcelona. "i was so proud and happy because that was the first timeindonesia won a gold medal and that year was the firsttime badminton was included in the olympics. i was so proud to be able to present indonesia with its first gold medal andthe occasion

was made even more special because myboyfriend at that time also won the gold medal." the olympic gold was the pinnaclefor susi as her gift to the nation "for me olympics was my biggest achievementbecause compared to other tournaments it is the biggest and maybe the mostimportant tournament and there was where i was able to present a gold medal to my country.

i felt so proud. maybe before this in other tournaments, badminton was not as popular as tennis. people only knew badminton as a hobby, but at the olympics it was a whole new thing and there you want to be number one." susi's massive contribution to indonesiais reflected upon her glittering career she dominated the women's singles eventin the early to mid-1990s winning the all england in 1990,1991, 1993 and 1994

the world badminton grand prixconsecutively from 1990 to 1994 and the world championship in 1993she led the indonesian team to triumph at uber cup in 1994 and 1996. other thana gold medal at barcelona she also won a bronze medal at the 1996 olympic in atlanta. susiwas inducted into the ibf hall of fame in may 2004 and received the herbert scheele trophyfrom the ibf council in 2002 for outstanding exceptional services tobadminton. "there is only one regret.

i've won all the tournamentsi've played in except one, the asian games. i didn't get a chanceto play in that tournament. like all athletes of world calibersusi had one particular player she looked up to li ling wei of china, the two-time worldchampion who is now a member of the elite ioc executive committee."i like her a lot because she is a great player.her style of play is beautiful i like it."

with a baby on the way susi retiredin 1998 leaving a vacuum yet to be filled in the indonesian set-up. so whatis she up to these days? "right now my main job is to take care of mychildren i do own businesses but the mostimportant thing for me right now are my children, after that comes my sports equipment business, thebrand name is a combination of my name and myhusband's.

astec - alan-susi technology i also own a spa business i have seven branches around jakarta so that's it. i take care of my family and my businesses." in between running a sports equipmentcorporation astec alan and susi technology, 7 centresoffering foot reflexology, sports physiotherapy and spa facilities as well as taking care of her family,susi also runs an academy.

"i have a club, but just a small one. there arenot many players only around 30 to 40 people. they are not serious players. for them they play only as a hobby.i also don't coach my sister and an assistant handlethe training." susi is blessed with three childrenfrom a marriage to alan eldest of daughter laurencia averina,and two boys, albertus edward and sebastian frederick.

badminton is in their genes but the gameis played by susi's offspring mainly to cultivate a love for sports."i introduced badminton to them but they are not serious players.it's more of a hobby and a fun thing plus it keeps themhealthy." with a hectic schedule what doesshe do to unwind? "shopping, eating, travelling" family aside, susi is among a group offormer players hired to inject a breath of fresh air into the pbsi indonesia's badmintonfederation

"i can see the new management now is givinga new lease of life and hope that one day indonesian badminton will regain its glory years and can be even more successful. the combination of ex-players and coaches who have created champions have resulted in satisfactory results for indonesian badminton"

on that note another episode of badminton worldcomes to an end don't forget if you have a favoritesuper series moment of your own send it over tobadmintonworld@totalsportsasia.com and as we say goodbye don't forget wewill be back with more news, profiles, and interviews. in the meantime it's farewell for nowfrom badminton world it's the world we know.