Japan Open 2007 just recently came to an end. My favorite player, Tony Gunawan, won men double title. Some of the matches are already on YouTube. Here are the matches that I found. I made a playlist out of it, so you won’t have to click them seperatedly. Just click play all video on the right hand side and enjoy!
Badminton Japan Open 2007 - Koo Kien Kiet/Tan Boon Heong vs Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto
In this match, the video was shot by hand, so there is no commentator, and no score graphically shown. I must admit though that I like this angle much better than the high angle used in normal TV broadcast. It lets me see how high the bird is which make it more 3 dimension, than the high angle which makes it hard to judge the hight of the bird, hence feel more 2D. Recently, I’m impressed with how Kiet/Heong are playing. The win they got at All England over Cai Yun/Foo HaiFeng was very impressed that they dominated the chinese pair in every aspect of the game. Moreover, they played together so well in that match, that they can substitute each other seamlessly. They both commited to playing very fast, the new style in double that Tony Gunawan was talking about. Cai/Fu had no chance in that match. This match, however, was different. In Cai/Fu match, they can prey on Fu weak defense and get a lot of easy kills at the net. However, Alvent and Luluk defense was very strong. Even smashing point blank at the net couldn’t take them down, and they are force to smash a lot more from the back, rather than finishing the point at the net. This more like the old double style that Alvent and Luluk have been playing all their live, so they took the match. At the end of second set, Alvent and Luluk even won many points from driving contest which should be the strong point of Keit/Heong pair.
Badminton Japan Open 2007 - Lin Dan vs Lee Chong Wei
Lee Chong Wei did the unthinkable by defeating Lin Dan in this match and go on to win over Taufik Hidayat in the final. Very impressive indeed.
Enjoy.