My Love

I was happy to see you again, my love. I miss you so much, my love. I was glad to be with you on time, my love. I'm proud to say that I made a precise decision to go back home on that particular moment, my love. And there we are, we met again, my beloved badminton! I was happy I had a chance to watch badminton matches again. I missed badminton so much. I was glad to be with All England 2009 badminton matches on time. I'm proud to say that I made a precise decision to go back home on that particular moment to watch All England 2009! The players I support made their ways to the final, and I was glued to the televesion during the final (well, I did went away during the Women's single and doubles). Here's the final matches: Mixed double: China vs Korea; Men's single: Malaysia vs China; Women's doubles: China vs China; Women's single: Denmark vs China and Men's doubles: China vs Korea. I just wanna watch my favourite palyers from team China, for the Men's doubles. It's been a long time since the last time both of them played as partners. But the match was the last match of all, so I watched most of the other matches.
First, it was the mixed double match. He HanBin-Yu Yang of China vs Ko Sung Hyun-Ha Jung Eun from Korea. I went out before the match, and when I came back, it's halfway through. The Chinese lost the first set, but won the last two sets, hence winning the match.

Then it's the men's single match, Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan. I didn't watch the whole match, as I went to take bath. When I got back, Lee Chong Wei was leading 19-17. I thought Chong Wei will have won that set, as with Lin Dan's style, from my observations, when he think or see that he's gonna lost, he'll quickly finished up the set and try hard on the next set. But then, Chong Wei made some mistakes, and now Lin Dan was leading the set. Then, I think Lin Dan found his strength back to play carefully and precisely, thus winning the first set with 21-19. The crowds there at Birmingham Stadium was full of Malaysian and Chinese supporters. Each sides cheered for each point the players scored. And while the player they support was left behind, they cheered to the player, to give him more strength. Both players were playing cat and mice with the score, from 1 all to 6 all, but when Chong Wei lost 2 points continuosly, Lin Dan lead all the way to point 8. And then there was a long rally between the top players. But then again Chong Wei made mistakes and Lin Dan done a superb job to finish up the set by winning 21-12, thus becoming the champion. This is his fourth time winning the All England Championship. From my observations, Chong Wei did played well. Maybe it's just that Lin Dan played a better game. Chong Wei did said after the match that Lin Dan played better compared to the Beijing Olympic's Final. It's not that Chong Wei did not prepared well or he lost his consistency while playing, it's just that Lin Dan was better than he used to be.

Next was the women's double. Its a battle between players from same country, but a battle between seniors, Zhang YaWen/Zhao TingTing and juniors, Cheng Shu/Zhao YunLei. All the players did play hard, coz everyone also want to have the All England's trophy. There were rallies that won by juniors, smash shots that juniors didn't managed to receivee, etc. And there was no team coach around. Normally, if the opponent is from a different country, there are coaches for both sides, to tell the players what mistakes they had done or what are the opponent's mistakes. But since it's an 'internal affair', no coach is needed. Players can find out the opponent's mistake on their own, as the coaching system are the same for all the players. The juniors did not let their seniors won the match easily though the seniors are much more experienced than them. Seniors won by straight set 21-1, 21-15.

Then it's women's single match between world number 1 and reigning All England champion Tine Rasmussen of Denmark and unseeded Wang Yi Han. Tine is much more experienced then the newcomer Yi Han. But unseeded Yi Han had battle past other better players like Zhou Mi (world number 2) and Xie Xing Fang (world number 5) before enter final. Though facing a youngster, Tine did play carefully with Yi Han. She lost the first set by 19-21,but fight back on the second set, and won that set with 23-21. But in the third set, Yi Han fought hard, and the gap between Tine and her is 5 points. Then she control the whole game, and Tine can't match her. She went on to win the set by 21-11, and got her first All England trophy.

Finally, the match I've been waiting for. Men's double, Cai Yun/Fu HaiFeng vs Han Sang Hoon/Hwang Ji Man. Cai Yun/Fu HaiFeng is a favourite double players in team China because they achieved more than other double players (I mean in this few years time). But they were split out to pair up with juniors so that the juniors will improved/learn a thing or two. Hence, they were partially spilt out, but when entering major tournaments like All England, they will pair up again. Han Sang Hoon/Hwang Ji Man is a younger pair from Korea. It's not a long match, but full of excitement. Some of the service by the Korean pair are let (too high), and some return serve by the Chinese pair were stuck at the net. But all those players do pair up perfectly. It's hard to describe it, but I enjoyed to watch it. It's not because of my favourite players were there, it's just that men's double are quite fast compare to others. The court is just enough to fit in four people to run up and down. Whereas in the single's match, a player have to run such a big half court. It takes time to run such a big place, kind of wasting time. Plus men are more powerful than women when they do smashing. Thus it's much more excited to watch this type of match. Anyway, Cai Yun/Fu HaiFeng won by 21-17, 21-15.

It's just that I was lucky to be at home at that moment. If not, I'll just have to 'watch' the games through newspaper, which I'm not into it. But I do 'envy' one of my friend, who is in England to further her studies, where she went to watch the semi final matches!! When will I have the chance? It's not that I want to go to England or anywhere to watch. I just want to watch a real badminton match with those top players!!!

My favourites players!! :)