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THE REVENGE OF THE WOMEN's SINGLES - US OPEN 2001
How would the new 5 by 7 scoring affect this year's Yonex US Open? Would entries drop off? Would the quality of play be altered? Would the fans in the stands find the play confusing?
These questions and many more plagued us as we put together the 2001 edition. After 5 previous successes at the Orange County Badminton Club, we, at least, had a few practice laps under our belts. Yonex and K&D Graphics supplied the fuel -- 30,000 in prize money.
The entries flooded in and by the cut-off date we had over 160 entrants and nearly 200 potential matches. This represented a hefty increase over our usual 110 entrants and 130 matches. We added a fifth court and required Tuesday qualifying in both men's and women's singles. Still our Wednesday playing schedule ran from an agonizing 9am to 11pm.
The tournaments kicks off with mixed doubles and 15 mostly un-noteworthy matches. Practically all are blowouts and only 2 extend beyond the minimum three games. Then singles start and the fireworks begin. First up is the number one woman seed, Julia Mann from England, who is ranked number eleven in the world. Her opponent, Ra Kyung Min from Korea is unranked and plays that way in the first game losing without a whimper 7 to 1. Oh, but wait, this is the same Ra Kyung Min who several years back was the world's mixed doubles champion. We do a little research. She is currently ranked in the top six in both women's and mixed doubles. What the heck is this double's veteran doing playing singles? Maybe she thinks the 5 by 7 scoring will reincarnate her into a hot-shot singles player.
Ra plays some unorthodox singles in the second game, but makes terrific shots that catch Mann out of place. She knots the games at one apiece winning 7 to 3. Hey, perhaps singles isn't so hard for this great doubles player as she next crushes the English woman 1 and 1 to move on to the next round.
OCBC's May Mangkalakiri is next up and she struggles through an exciting 5 gamer with the Canadian, Florence Lavoie. A nice win for May, but next up will be that funny singles player, Ra. Half of the first round women's matches go 4 or 5 games with torrid action. The men's singles follows with seven out of 16 matches going into extra innings. It seems like the Americans are involved in all of them. Bob Malaythong wins his first two games by identical scores of 7 to 5 and has his chances to wrap things up in the third. He falls in heart breaking fashion to Japan's Samura 8 to 7; then fails to muster much resistance in the final two games. For Howard Bach the 5 by 7 magic has a different turn. He is down 2 games to Japan's Nakao when he turns on the heat and escapes to the next round.
No Americans make it through the quarters, but some have good showings. Cindy Shi is overmatched against Ra but manages to steal a game off of her. Andy Chong and Alex Liang play well and lead two games to one but can't pull out the critical third one allowing the third seeded Japanese Nakanishi and Ohtsuka a pass to the semis.
In women's doubles Ra and partner Kim mow down their competition dropping only one game on their way to the finals, where they make short work (17 minutes) of the top seeded Danes. In singles things are bit more difficult for Ra. In the semis she gets down two games to one to Dane Tine Rasmussen, but rallies to win the fourth 7-4. Then she makes it look easy in the rubber game. In the finals Ra keeps to her rags-to-riches script. She lets second seeded Mette Sorensen take the first game 8-6 before asserting her dominance 4, 3, and 2. She is jubilant. The Korean team is jubilant and they rush the court to hug her. They know, she knows and we know that she used smoke, mirrors, and a slight of hand to pull a flock of birds out of her veteran's hat to capture the first gold at the US Open. Ra's performance inspires the Korean team to also capture the men's singles and doubles. Even though the Danes put teams in 4 final events, they manage to win only mixed doubles.
By the end of the final awards ceremony the results of the US Open are being e-mailed to points around the world and posted on several web sites. Those results are a compilation of wins and losses, important to many individuals and countries. But behind those figures lies another story that describes the successes and failures of 5 by 7 scoring,
In the following chart 2001 Open matches are compared with matches from the 1999 Open which had traditional 3 by 15 scoring. The most notable statistic is the overall loss of 7 minutes per
match due to the new 5 by 7 scoring. Men's singles takes a whopping hit of sixteen minutes per match while women's singles makes a modest gain of 3 minutes. It is certainly no surprise that women's singles under the old format would have the shortest match length since they played 3 by 11 rather than 3 by 15. In 1999 this 27% point discount (11 points vs.15) translated into 27% less playing time compared to the average of the other 4 disciplines (28 minutes vs. 35.5).
In 2001 all five disciplines played under the same scoring system and interestingly women's singles captured the most glory time. Perhaps more enlightening is the closeness of the women's times for 1999 and 2001, indicating that the 5 by 7 system is equivalent time-wise to 3 by 11 scoring. Further conformation of this was made by looking at the 2000 US Open where the average match length for women's singles was 32 minutes. Is this good or bad? I don't know, but it does change the nature of the game.
This year only one match lasted more than one hour (63 minutes) while back in 1999 we had 10 matches move the hour hand of which the longest lasted 81 minutes. In 1999 the shortest matches lasted 14 minutes while this year 13 broke that barrier with the shortest being a scant 5 minutes. What did this mean? Well, for one, endurance played less of a factor in determining a winner. For another, crummy matches (0,0,0) didn't waste as much court time nor spectator patience.
After all of this analysis I still don't have the answers, just a lot more questions. For my own part I can say it is more interested to watch 5 by 7 badminton. Matches seem to have very little dead time within the games. Close competitive games are more common and upsets appear more likely. Heck, if it can transform Ra Kyung Min from an aging doubles player to an upstart singles player, I'm all for it.
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(by Bob Cook) - Special thanks!!!
GREAT WALL STUNS USA BADMINTON PLAYERS
Two of the greatest wonders of the world, the Great Wall and the Terra-Cotta soldiers, have never tempted me enough to visit China. But ahh, when the magic lure of badminton was dangled in front of me, I began packing my bags. I figured a month for such a stunning trip. I just wasn't prepared for how stunning.
The Morning Cup in Taipei, Taiwan, is the real granddaddy of senior tournaments in the world. Not only does it have the standard singles, doubles and mixed in age categories from 25 to 75, but also husband/wife, father/child, mother/child, grandma/grandchild, and grandpa/grandchild. Sounded like fun, so I talked my wife, Ana, into playing 55 husband/wife rather than the usual 55 mixed we play. Big mistake.
On our first day in Taipei we hooked up with the Japanese team for a morning tour of the National Palace Museum. When we realized just how great how each and every exhibit was, we said Bye-bye tour and hung out at the museum all day. Over 1000 years ago Chinese emperors began amassing the best in Chinese art and culture. Each successive reign added to this prodigious collection up until the last emperor was deposed in 1911. Since then it has been moved and hidden dozens of times to protect it from revolutions and invading armies. Fortuitously, in 1949 the collection was spirited away from the communist revolution on the mainland to Taiwan. Much of Chinese treasures and culture that remained behind would later be destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's. Containing over 700,000 of the greatest treasures of China from the past 2000 years, only 15,000 objects can be displayed at a time. If you wish to see the entire collection, you must make quarterly visits for twelve years. Even after our visits to the Great Wall and to the incredible Terra-Cotta soldiers, the National Museum remained the highlight of our trip.
For the three days of the tournament the Municipal Gym in Taipei was outfitted with its permanent 10 badminton courts on the 7th floor, 10 temporary courts on the 4th floor, and 4 mats on the 1st floor. The draws and schedule of matches were published in a book of 202 pages. Except for our names and the names of the other 9 members of the Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley Badminton Clubs who represented the United States everything in the book was in Chinese characters. From the schematics of the draws I deduced that most events were pool play feeding to knockout rounds. The largest event had 14 pools of 3 and 4 players. I sensed, however, that surprises awaited us in those mysterious Chinese characters.
By the end of the first day I had survived pool play in 55 singles. After I had won the semis in the knock out round, I dutifully waited at the court where the finals were scheduled. And, I kept waiting until a court official finally found me and lead me to another court. Our team managers huddled with the tournament officials. No, this would not be the finals and, no, this isn't a true knockout draw. So, I ended up playing a meaningless last match against someone with two losses. I sensed that it was due to those mysterious Chinese characters.
After some competitive play, Ana and I won our pool in the 55 husband/wife event. We were thinking, yah, this is fun. However, those Chinese characters were lurking about and they specified that only the husband had to be 55, the wife could be any age. So, in the knock out round we faced a feeble guy married to a younger gal. We tried our best, but got thrashed. We packed up to go home (well, back to the hotel). No, No, we must play again. This time the gal was even younger and we really got thrashed. Fine, enough, basta. No, No, we still had one more. Our teammates whispered something about the next gal being the national champion in Indonesia a few years back. Holy ####! I cleared and she crushed it. I smashed and she zinged it back for a point. I dropped and ended up with a shuttle sandwich. Even on the final point I was determined, at least once, to get the better of her. She was in the back looking extremely bored when I received service. I pushed the shuttle to the front left corner. It caught the net cord and curled over and down. She was there in a flash, swept the bird from just above the floor, and skimmed it across court one inch above the net. Game, set, match to China; hot showers for us.
Television programming varied from city to city, but one thing was constant the nightly coverage of table tennis and badminton. The World Table Tennis Championships were being transmitted live from Osaka, Japan, and were often carried on two different channels. We watched many exciting hours of table tennis competition, but nothing matched the excitement and drama of the semi-finals in the men's team championships.
In the first semi defending world champion, Sweden, met tiny Belgium who had unexpectedly survived some close ties in the previous rounds. Led by two brothers they pulled the biggest upset in the tournament and landed in finals for the first time. In the second semi there was an even a bigger disparity between the teams. China sent three of the worlds best players against a lowly Korean team. In the first 4 matches Korea pulled two major upsets and sent the tie into the fifth and deciding match. Fed by the his team's momentum and the enthusiasm of the crowd the Korean outplayed China's Liu, the 5th ranked player in the world. After posting a 21-16 win in the first game, he continued his stellar play in the second. When the Korean reached team match point at 20-19 the whole arena was going berserk. Liu evened the score. The Korean forced match point again at 21-20, but Liu responded. And, still again another match point at 22-21 was countered by Liu, who put the game away at his first opportunity 24-22 forcing a third game. The deciding game followed almost the same script as the second game with the Korean reaching team match point at 20-19. Liu, incredibly, dug in time after time saving four match points before getting his first opportunity at 24-23. He converted. Game, set, match to China; hot showers for the Koreans.
Watching badminton and table tennis on television is quite a different experience than viewing edited tapes on VCRs. Here are some of my observations. For table tennis the pluses for television are the overall field of play can be covered well with one camera, the intensity and quickness of play shows well, the court officials have minimal intervention, and the win by two points is great sports drama. The minuses include the ball is often screened by the players and table, the rallies are too short, and the games too long. To correct these deficiencies table tennis next year is shortening games to 11 points and increasing the ball size from 38 mm to 40 mm, which will (hopefully) spur more rallying. The major issue that faces international table tennis is China. Except for the one fore-mentioned team match the Chinese decimated the competition in team, singles, pairs, and mixed competition winning all seven gold medals and sweeping most (1st, 2nd, and 3rd).
Badminton fortunately has a much greater parity at the elite level but still is a long way off from having real international balance. For television the pluses are long rallies, a variety of shots, and explosive energy. The minuses are drearily long 15 point games (as a die hard singles player I never thought I'd say that), difficulty in seeing entire court from one camera angle, and the multitude of court officials. I am now a keen supporter of the seven point games. Tennis with all its defects has managed to conquer the television age by having a seemingly endless number of 4 point games.
Often while I'm playing badminton and make a crummy shot, I flip the racket up, it rotates, and I re-catch it. If I really blow a shot then I'll flip it harder giving it two or more rotations. Then I usually miss catching it and the racket bangs on the floor. Well, in Beijing a really frustrated badminton player has perfected this art of racket flipping. He can flip 3 and 4 rackets at once, like a juggler with balls or bowling pins through the legs, behind the back, while doing summersaults, on a unicycle, etc. And when he finished wowing us with those skills he bumped it up to 5 rackets and still managed to do amazing maneuvers while flinging the rackets all about. Then he added a sixth racket and as we were saying, no way, he threw in a seventh racket. All I could think about was Wow, how can I get this guy to perform between matches at the US Open.
Going into this trip we knew the food would be strange, but felt with a little rice we could survive. No rice in Taiwan, no rice in Hong Kong, no rice in Xian. We never found it on menus (when we could read them) and when we asked for it, we never got it. One night in Beijing we played tourist and celebrated with a fancy dinner of Peking duck (or should that now be Beijing duck). Being particularly crabby Ana insisted and persisted until she finally got a bowl of plain steamed rice. Back at the hotel I consulted our guidebook, "...at upscale restaurants it is considered barbaric to order rice."
We were nearing the end of our travels and, for the most part, the trip had been smooth, touristy, and by the book. Then, after several postponements, on our final day in Beijing we bolted to the Great Wall, but not to the part you typically see in the posters and in travelogues. The Wall at Mutianyu is equally impressive, but not yet choked with wall-to-wall tourists. From the parking lot we rode a tram up the 1000 feet to the ridge of the mountains. From there the Great Wall snaked off into the distant horizons both to the east and to the west. We hiked up and down along the course of the Wall for a couple of hours. Eventually, we arrived at the path that would take us down the mountains and back to the parking area. Abruptly the skies darkened and lightening flashed. In minutes the temperature plummeted from the high 70's into the 40's. Our hair stood on end when a bolt struck a watchtower behind us. We ran to the chair lift and bought tickets. As we pushed into a mob clamoring to get on, I turned to Ana, "in the States they would have closed this puppy down at the first crack of thunder." Once the operators gained control of the crowd they funneled the women, children and foreigners (only us) ahead and on to the open 2-person chairs.
Our summer garb was little comfort for the freezing winds that swirled about us as we bounced over the first tower. A bolt of lightening flashed down in front of us striking a tower near the terminus. The lift stopped. Thunder rumbled through us. Pea sized hail began blasting us. I took off my light fleece jacket and we huddle beneath it. The wind whipped the chair back and forth as we dangled 300 feet above the ground. The sky continued to darken until the only object we could distinguish was the wildly swinging chair 30 feet in front. So much the better, I thought as I gripped even tighter on the armrest. The fleece proved worthless when the hail turned to an icy rain. We were now completely soaked, cold, and petrified.
From far down below loudspeakers blared out something in Chinese. I imagined hearing, "Don't panic, help is on the way. Stay calm, helicopters are on the way from Beijing and we'll have you down in an hour or two." Shivering like crazy, I mused, unless the weather turns around, no one up here is going to last that long, especially me. About 5 to 10 minutes later the cable jerked to life and we, oh so slowly, crept down through the frigid rain. We hit the ground and waded through the muddy waters racing off the hillsides. We reached our taxi and plopped down for the long two-hour ride back to Beijing. Game, set, match to China; hot showers for us.
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(by Bob Cook) - Special thanks!!!
RETURNING TO THE BEGINNING
Every badminton player wants to improve its game! Even an advanced badminton player who knows the game very well, and has been playing for years already, still has room for improvement. And that is because, everyone around us is developing very fast, so you cannot expect badminton to always remain static. It is enough to look in the past to see how badminton was played 8-10 years ago and the difference is simply astonishing.
So how can you improve your badminton skills? Well you can start by returning to the very beginnings to what badminton is mostly based on.
Isn't badminton a fast played game? Yes, it is. So the first key that allows you to have an improved game is the SPEED. I think if someone were to ask us to call badminton by another name, Speed would be the best choice for the other name.
Concerning the speed concept it is important to remember that badminton is a cross between the speed of body and the speed of mind!
The speed of body is based mostly on very good footwork. The shots are very quick during a high quality badminton match so improvement in the footwork is most important, otherwise you are out of this game.
The speed of mind is based on the knowledge of badminton tactics. Everyone knows and it is important to say it again that being a good singles player does not mean that you can be a good doubles player too. There are two different ways of thinking and the difference comes from the team work that appears inevitably during the doubles matches. Which is why players who want to reach high badminton standards must make a choice. It is not a requirement though. But the decision needs to be made, to be able to start working on the skills.
So start acting, discover your best part and improve it! Start right now by going back to the beginnings! The best solution is there waiting for you...
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(by Elena D.)
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