British Badminton Is Mixing It Up

Just when it looked as though British badminton was going nowhere, two bright sparks reignited hopes of a home medal at the London Olympics.

Since the sport was promoted from an exhibition event to a fully-fledged member of the Olympic family in 1992, Britain has won just two medals, one silver and one bronze. The powerhouses of the game lie in Asia - China, Malaysia and Korea just three of the nations that dominate the international scene - leaving Britain as a fairly minor country, left to plough the fields of the Badminton World Federation’s third and fourth tier Grand Prix events for titles.

The BWF Super Series, launched at the beginning of the 2007 season, has seen only a single event end up in British hands; that was Anthony Clark and Nathan Robertson at the 2009 Singapore Open. Last year’s Commonwealth games witnessed a new low for the sport, as no gold medals were placed around British necks for the first time since the sport was inaugurated into its fold.

So where does this tale of woe change? August came around with little under a year to go until the opening of the London Olympics and test events in full flow as part of the preparations. The BWF decided to hold the 2011 World Championships at Wembley Arena to feature in the test calendar, hoping to win the hearts and minds of British fans in the process.

The remotest chance of a medal was with the English mixed doubles pair of Robertson and Jenny Wallwork, the top ranked of any Britons over the entirety of the five events. Robertson has long been one of the faces of English badminton, rising to prominence during the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he claimed a silver medal with Gail Emms in the mixed, garnering the sport a lot of media attention and a new found audience. He his previous partner also managed to strike gold at the 2006 World Championships, England’s first in 23 years.

Unfortunately, Robertson and Wallwork were downed in the second round by an unseeded Malaysian pair. The remaining collection of assorted Brits fell by the wayside, leaving only the partnership of England’s Chris Adcock and Scotland’s Imogen Bankier in the round of 16, facing the task of Japanese 15^th seeds Shintaro Ikeda and Reiko Shiota for a place in the quarter-finals.

Burgeoning Talents

Adcock and Bankier first set foot on the Super Series tour towards the end of 2010 as a new pair, losing out at the second stage of the French Open. They followed up with a trio of tournament wins, taking the crowns in the Grand Prix Scottish, Irish and Italian International events at the close of the year, before taking up a regular spot in the travelling English team on the top rung of the international tour. Only once did they pass the first stage of any Super Series tournament, leaving their success at Wembley a shock to the badminton world.

They disposed of the Japanese in three games, before proceeding to delight the local support with a typically British story of underdogs come good. They eliminated fourth seeds Tao Jiaming and Tian Qing in the quarters, before sending Indonesian second seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir out in straight games at the semi-final stage.

They fell at the final hurdle to the world number one pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei from China, ending the tournament on somewhat of an anti-climax, though the initial disappointment soon turned into pride.

”It's hard to end the tournament on a loss when we've been on a high all week. But, when we reflect, we've produced some fantastic performances and had brilliant results against top 10 pairs," Bankier said to BBC Sport immediately after the final.

The Numbers Game

In the months since, Adcock and Bankier’s world ranking has risen from 18^th up to 12^th - they hit a high of 11^th – while the well-travelled Robertson and Wallwork have slipped from inside the top ten to 15^th, falling to a low of 20^th in early November.

As per Olympic qualifying rules, this means that it would be the younger pair who will clinch the British spot at the games come July, potentially leaving Robertson in a quandary. Prior to his top ranked status being usurped by the hungry Anglo-Scottish partnership, he had spoken to the media about his plans to retire after one last hurrah at London 2012, though he now appears to have a fight on his hands.

In doubles competition only 16 pairs will make it to the showpiece event at the games, but two teams from the same country can only qualify if they are both in the world’s top eight. This leaves the top two British partnerships with a shootout for the place, assuming they aren’t overtaken by another couple looking for a break.

Scotsman Robert Blair and Gabby White, ironically Adcock’s girlfriend, are back at 22^nd in the world, yet they had the opportunity to gain points that their rivals didn’t this week. Blair and White finished 7^th in this season’s Super Series rankings, qualifying them for the tour finals in Liuzhou, China – thanks in part to their appearance in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open at the turn of the year, and the quarter-final they achieved at the China Masters.

The world rankings take the 10 best tournament results, based on the points received, and total them up to give a final place. Despite losing all three games at the Masters Finals, Blair and White took home a haul of 6050 points, replacing their first round exit at the Indonesian Open.

With a little bit of calculation, this takes them up to a year ending ranking of 15^th, the place currently occupied by Robertson and Wallwork, putting them straight back into the race for Olympic contention.

The Olympic qualification period finishes across all events on May 3^rd with the release of the BWF world rankings, it is likely that only then will we know identity the successful pair, if any, who make it to Wembley Arena.

The opportunity to capture the memories of a lifetime on the biggest stage of them all, and in front of a partisan home crowd, is there for the taking. Be it the first of many for Adcock and Bankier, or a swansong for Robertson, this is the chance to end years of hurt for British badminton.

New Venue, New Champions?

That remains to be seen, but what we do know is that all five reigning Hong Kong Open champions will return to the Pearl of the Orient to fight for title retention. They will not, however, be making their way back to the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Instead the badminton world's finest will take to the court at the Hong Kong Coliseum, a far larger venue that means that an extra day for qualifying and first round ties no longer needs to be facilitated.

Men's Singles

Lee Chong Wei, winner of the tournament's previous two editions, will begin his title defence against Spaniard Pablo Abian, the world number 23 whose search for form looks unlikely to improve come November 15th. Abian failed to advance past the opening rounds of the last two Super Series events in Denmark and France, a pair of disappointments, especially after he reached the third round of August's World Championships, scoring a victory over European number two Marc Zweibler on the way.

Chong Wei has been shaky in his own right, falling short at the final hurdle at three of his last four tournaments. After losing a pulsating World Championship final to Lin Dan, Lee lost two consecutive Super Series finals to Chen Long, though he put that ghost to bed in France, knocking his newest nemesis out at the semi-final stage.

If he is to face Chen Long once again it will be in the final, as the Chinese starts his first tournament as the world's second ranked player. Hsuan Yi Hsueh stands between him and the second round, where he will be reward with either of the two potential qualifiers who face-off in round 1.

Home hopes rely on Wong Wing Ki, who notched a famous victory over Lin Dan at the Danish Open. If he can find his way past Japan's Takuma Ueda he could square off with Lin once again, providing the World Champ beats Kashyap Parupalli.

First round games to watch:

[MAS] Lee Chong Wei (1) V [ESP] Pablo Abian
[CHN] Lin Dan (3) V [IND] Kashyap Parupalli
[GUA] Kevin Cordon V [DEN] Peter Gade (4)

Women's Singles

Despite having been toppled at the top of the rankings Wang Yihan goes into the tournament as the number one seed in the women's singles.

She will open up against Ayane Kurihara, though the young Japanese shuttler, taking her first crack in Hong Kong, should prove little fare for Yihan, looking to add to her Korean, Indonesian and Japanese titles thus far this season.

Her namesakes, Wang Shixian and Wang Xin, face testing tasks in their openers, matching up against talented youngsters Tai Tzu Ying and Sung Ji Hyun respectively. Sung, winner of September's Chinese Taipei Open, proved victorious the last time the pair met; that was in the Korea quarter-finals, the home player coming out on top in three games.

17 year old Tai broke into the top 20 for the first time in April and looks set to become a star of the future. Having captured her first international title in the US back in July the upstart remains on a high, especially after reaching the French Open semis, beating Wang Yihan on the way.

Saina Nehwal, the current holder of the Hong Kong trophy, will have the local crowd on her back as she starts against Chan Tsz Ka.

First round games to watch:

[GER] Juliane Schenk (6) V [JAP] Ai Goto
[CHN] Wang Xin (3) V [KOR] Sung Ji Hyun
[TPE] Tai Tzu Ying V [CHN] Wang Shixian (2)

Men's Doubles

Defending champions Ko Sung Hyun/Yoo Yeon Seong will enter the Coliseum as fourth seeds, battling Chen Hung Lin/Lin Yu Lang of Chinese Taipei, ranked a full 20 places behind them. Their road into the quarter-finals should not be too steep, as they would play either Michael Fuchs/Oliver Roth or a qualifying pair in round two.

Their Korean counterparts, Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae, open up against the Chinese pair of Hong Wei/Shen Ye, a combination they knocked out of the World Championships and hold a 3-0 record over.

Top seeds Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng have yet another Korean pair to challenge them in the first round. Kim Ki Jung/Shin Baek Chol may be way down in 48th place of the latest world rankings, though that may be deceptive. They have only played eight tournaments together since forming their partnership back in June, their results showing they are still working out the creases of their new line-up.

First round games to watch:

[MAS] Koo Kien Kieat/Tan Boon Heong (5) V [JAP] Hiroyuko Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa
[DEN] Mads Conrad-Petersen/Jonas Rasmussen V [IND] Alvent Yulianto Chandra/Hendra Aprida Gunawan (7)

Women's Doubles

With eleven consecutive tournament finals and gold from the Sudirman Cup to boot Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang look set to continue their domination of the women's doubles category. They took gold twelve months ago and begin their tilt at retention against Sandra Marinello/Birgit Michels, the rest of their potential opponents until the quarters providing similarly average.

Teammates Tian Qing/Zhang Yunlei should have no problems in defeating lowly Chan Tsz Ka/Cheung Ngan Yi, despite the having the crowd against them.

The field for the women's doubles event looks fairly poor on paper, with seven pairs from the home nation, alongside two from Macau, though world number threes Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa will look to build on their success at the Bitburger Open.

First round games to watch:

[CHN] Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang (1) V [GER] Sandra Marinello/Birgit Michels
[IND] Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa V [DEN] Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl (8)

Mixed Doubles

In-form Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen will be looking to make it a hat-trick of Super Series final wins when they start up against Toby Ng/Grace Gao of Canada. The titles in Denmark and France went the way of the Danes and with Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba the other seeds in their quarter of the draw they stand a good chance of making the semis, where their likely rivals will be Xu Chen/Ma Jin, though Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Mizuki Fujii look dangerous floaters.

Top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei have a Hollywood clash in the first round with Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun, while Kim Ki Jung/Jung Kyung Eun and Chris Adcock/Imogen Bankier are also in the top five ties of what is expected to be a highly contested category.

Adcock/Bankier have overtaken British rivals Nathan Robertson/Jenny Wallwork in the rankings as they start their first Super Series as seeds.

First round games to watch:

[CHN] Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (1) V [KOR] Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun
[GBR] Chris Adock/Imogen Bankier (6) V [CHN] He Hanbin/Bao Yixin
[GBR] Robert Blair/Gabriel White V [CHN] Xu Chen/Ma Jin

Taufik Hidayat: Is the star burning out?

With 24 career titles in 11 years Taufik Hidayat is rightly regarded as one of the finest players in modern badminton. Yet his star is on wane, and with the London Olympics on the horizon, the Indonesian needs a late pick-up to turn around a torrid year.

At the age of 30 Hidayat is not getting any younger – there have long been retirement plans, stretching back four years, when he should still have been in his prime – meaning that 2012 is likely to be his final chance to recapture the lost glories that have included some of the biggest tournaments on the world calendar.

Only a single game was dropped throughout the 2004 Olympics, Taufik cruising to the gold medal with a comfortable 15-8 15-7 victory over Shon Seung-mo, cementing a place within the sports elite. The World Championships in Anaheim followed a year later, but those illustrious pasts are exactly that, adding to the pressure for one last hurrah when the eyes of the badminton world focus on Wembley Arena next July.

The current struggles began following this year’s Korean Open, Taufik finishing in a defeat to eventual winner Lin Dan in the Seoul quarter-finals. The All England Championships, arguably the most prestigious of the Super Series tournaments, were just around the corner, though a first round loss to unseeded Kazushi Yamada left the Indonesian feeling sorry for himself.

Early exits followed in India and Singapore, while a respectable quarter-final loss to Peter Gade back at his home Super Series event looked fairly respectable, given the circumstances that had preceded it. To the home faithful, however, it was a disappointment.

For almost a decade Hidayat has been touted as the face of Indonesian badminton; the star with the forthright power, deft touch and demon backhand, a star that the nation has not seen since Rudy Hartono and his eight All England titles back in the 1970s.

He has the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders, Hartono himself telling Today Online that Simon Santoso, the second ranked Indonesian, is simply ‘not a world-class player’. One of the superpowers of world badminton is in decline, in the singles game at least, leaving Hidayat as the pinnacle of the nation’s hopes, bringing all the associated pressures with it.

In the same interview Hartono also stated that Taufik was too old. That can’t be argued with. He won his first international title in 1999 and has been competing ever since. 30 doesn’t seem old for a sportsman, but badminton takes its toll on the body faster than most, Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei have hinted at retiring after the Olympics and they are even younger than Taufik.

Without a title to his name since the 2010 French Open, the perfect time came to claim a winners’ medal with the two tournament tour of North America in July, though there was to be no gold for the falling giant.

The key tournament before the Olympics was undoubtedly the World Championships, staged at the same venue as a test event for the London games. There should have been little trouble until the quarters for Taufik, though he succumbed to Derek Wong in the second round.

Further failures to make any true progress at the Japan and Denmark Opens compounded a truly awful year, the lacklustre displays against Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Viktor Axelsen in the latter demonstrating Hidayat’s woes perfectly.

The exhaustion he may be suffering is not only physical but also mental, when you watch the Indonesian in recent months there looks to be an air of complacency surrounding his play, as well as a lack of will. Hidayat himself has stated in interviews that he has fallen out of love with the sport, and to hear such a comment from a man who has built his life around the game is disheartening to say the least.

Departures in Japan and France followed, leaving his world ranking down at 8th, with the potential of losing out on Olympic qualification if his countrymen Santoso, in 11th, and Sugiarto, in 16th, overtake him, or if he drops out of the top 16 completely.

Six months are left for Hidayat to maintain his seat on the plane to London, six months that require a mental rethink if the star from Java is to get one final shot at glory. Despite his troubles the Olympic rings hanging above the Wembley courts should be inspiring enough to re-instil the passion in any sportsman, Taufik being no exception.

Fischer And Pedersen Ensure Danish Joy

The home fans had something to cheer at the Yonex Denmark Open as Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen claimed mixed doubles gold in Odense.

The pair claimed their third Danish Open title thanks to a 22-20 21-16 win over Chinese fifth seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin. The first game saw a number of intense rallies, neither side able to break into a lead of more than two points, as they battled for control in the topsy-turvy opener, the lead exchanging seven times before the Danes took it on their second game point.

Nothing changed at the beginning of the game two, until, that was, the scores reached eight apiece, the Chinese taking three straight points to open up an 11-8 lead at the mid-game interval. It didn't last long, as the scores were soon levelled after the break before the home stars, ranked fourth in the world, secured five consecutive points, the longest streak of the match. That was a mark from which the Danish partnership never looked back as they maintained their lead right the way through, claiming the championship with their first match point after Ma Jin hit long of the backline.

Lee Chong Wei put in an abject performance in the men's singles final, falling to China's Chen Long for the second time in as many matches.

Chen's 21-15 21-18 victory means that he has now won the last three Super Series tournaments, following his victories at the China Masters and Japan Open, taking his career total to four top tier titles.

Chong Wei's erroneous first game gave his Chinese opponent an easy ride, the top seed scoring just eight winners throughout the opener. That is not to discredit Chen, however, who worked hard from back to front, the six point margin a fair reflection of each players efforts.

The scoring tightened up during the second game, the lead moving from one player to another before Chen finally made his lead stick at 16-15, closing out the match to secure a record equalling third consecutive Super Series win, Chong Wei himself and Sony Dwi Kuncoro the only other players to achieve that feat.

Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae clinched the men's doubles crown after a physically demanding win over Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China, their second consecutive win over the top ranked pair. For a match between two partnerships of such calibre there were a lot of expectations from fans, and the match lived up to the hype, finishing 21-16 21-17 in favour of the Koreans.

The first game started at a frantic pace, both sides ruthless in their exposition of attacking badminton and only playing clears when absolutely necessary. Quite typically it was the Koreans who coped better with the flat exchanges and an error on service from Cai gave them the advantage at the end of the first game.

What turned out to be the winning game picked up where the first had left off, the physicality refusing to be taken down a notch, though as with the first game it was Jung and Lee who held off the relentless attack the best, too many errors slipping into the Chinese play as the match drew to a close.

Though the final score, coupled with the fact that the final was finished after just 42 minutes, could lead you to believe this was a straightforward win for the world number twos. It was anything but; neither pair may ever get such a workout from a two game match.

Wang Xin claimed her second Super Series crown of the year, fending off the challenge of Wang Yihan 21-14 23-21 in an all-Chinese affair.

World champion Yihan was never able to settle into a rhythm and committed far too many errors, 25 throughout the match. The contest was cagey throughout, the teammates experts in one another's styles and tactics through training; Wang Xin restricting her nemesis to just one net winner in the first game, and no smash winners whatsoever.

The second was more open, though the quality of the badminton was still fairly low. It was, in fact, Wang Yihan who comfortably hit more winners, 18 in total, but the 23 year old was unable to land enough of her shots within Wang Xin's court, missing out on two game points at the death.

The women's doubles tournament churned out a rematch of this years World Championship final in it's own setpiece. The result ended up the same. Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang took home the $31,600 prize money, leaving Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei with the silver medals, winning 22-20 21-16.

Game one could have gone either way as the Chinese rivals battled valiantly for the lead, Tian and Zhao wasting the first game before handing the lead to their opponents in a hard fought opener. The second game took a very different path, Tian and Zhao taking the first point before letting seven in a row slip away. They never so much as drew level, that despite winning seven straight points of their own, as Wang and Yu ended the match at the first attempt.

Badminton's Greatest Fighter

In the grand scheme of sporting comebacks, Kim Clijsters returning from motherhood to win the US Open, Lance Armstrong fighting back from cancer to claim the Tour de France title, the Slovakian Open, an international series tournament on the world badminton calender, may not have quite the same ring to it, what it does provide, however, is proof that Petr Koukal has successfully fought back from his life threatening illness.

September 2010, Koukal had just completed the Bitburger Open, returning home to the Czech Republic having swept nearly all before him to reach the semi-finals, including the number 3 seed and world number 16 Rajiv Ouseph on the way. Little over a fortnight later, during a routine check-up with his doctor, came the devastating diagnosis of cancer.

Fast forward three months to December and Koukal was able to reveal to the world that he had been give the all clear after three cycles of chemotherapy, 'It was very hard experience,' admitted the philosophical shuttler, 'but I believe that it will only make me stronger and tougher.'

After just two months training Koukal returned to the court to defend his mantle as Czech national champion. It was never in doubt. The final in Prerov pitted the four time defending champ against Tomas Kopriva with an opportunity to complete a fairytale return to the court, the 25 year old duly obliging to claim his fifth consecutive national title.

Numerous small tournaments later and with a world ranking hovering around the late 60's came the next step in Koukal's recovery, a chance to take to the world stage again for the Sudirman cup in Qingdao, China. Playing in the third tier of the tournament the Czech's ended as runners-up in their group, Koukal winning two of his three matches before his team were forced to pull out, handing the Vietnamese a walkover and 23rd place.

Following all the positivity from his recovery there was still one other major tournament for Koukal to try his hand at before the year was out, the 2011 World Championships in London. Unfortunately for the Czech it didn't go quite to plan as he was on the wrong end of a 21-5 21-8 thrashing, Ukrainian Dmytro Zavadsky his conqueror. It was difficult to hide the disappointment after such a harrowing defeat but when you've come so far in such a short time you can't let go of your self belief, and there was never any doubt that Koukal was going to continue.

Onto Slovakia, then. Without dropping a game the big Czech made it to the final to face left-handed Pole Hubert Paczek, ranked 316 by the BWF. Koukal opened the match with five straight points, his lead extended to seven at the mid-game interval thanks to a flurry of powerful attacking strokes. Paczek pulled back a couple of points but in the end it was academic as his opponent took the first game by a 10 point margin, winning 21-11 on the first of his nine game points.

Though the second game saw a far more purposeful display from the Pole it was Koukal who stormed to a 21-15 victory in the second game, buoyed by the support of the horn-blowing crowd, the Czech fourth seed's all round game proving too strong for Paczek to deal with.

"You know I was so disappointed after a poor performance at the worlds in London that I decided to come here to Slovakia to try and get some wins under my belt." Said the bubbly Koukal after his victory. "But now it’s clear to me that actually London was meant to be and I was supposed to come here and win this tournament and really it’s a great feeling to win again."

To stand in the face of cancer and come out the other end as mentally tough as ever is a testament to the mindset of Koukal who never once showed that his illness was getting the better of him. Where others may have folded it shows that the physical abilities of this extraordinary athlete are not the only attributes that make him a world class sportsman, but the way he dealt with the psychological ramifications of facing his toughest opponent to date.

It is nearly a year after the soul destroying diagnosis for Koukal who has never once thrown in the towel when faced with a life-threatening adversary and now, less than twelve months after waiting for a totally different set of results, the strong willed shuttler is now eagerly anticipating Thursday's release of the latest world ranking tables. The push has begun for Koukal as he looks to force his career back to where it stood before, if he continues in the same vain it won't be long before he achieves his goal in a quite remarkable manner.