TEAM Asia has two faces: Taufik Hidayat, the flashy crowd-darling, and Lin Dan, the steel-nerved lethal weapon. About the only thing the two share -- aside from the side of the court they're on in the MVP Cup: Asia vs Europe badminton challenge -- is a long-standing rivalry. "It's a great thing to be playing together (with Lin), this time for Asia," said the 23-year-old Hidayat, who just recently bowed to Lin in the Sudirman Cup singles finals in Jakarta. With his fancy shots and uncanny ability to make placement shots off opponents' smashes, it wasn't too surprising why Hidayat, the reigning Olympic champion and world No. 8, has endeared himself to the Filipino crowd. "I love this country [because] this is where I won my first title (1997 Asian juniors championships)," said the Indonesian, who overcame a pulled abdominal muscle to crush Denmark's Anders Boesen, 15-13, 15-4, Tuesday night. Lin, the 21-year-old Thomas Cup and world champion, swears the Philippines is also close to his heart. He was also in Manila where he, playing as a junior, upset Hidayat four years ago. Still, it's a rare treat to have two of the most recognizable badminton stars, rivals at that, playing as teammates for a change. "That makes this tournament special," said team manager Datuk Punch Gunalan. "We get to pool together the region's vast talent resource and put them on display on the world stage."
I've been wondering.... If Xia is so good like everyone says, how come he's not in any of the recent tournaments? ..... Or is he? I've never seen any videos of him, all the videos I've seen are mostly lin dan and taufik..... Where's Xia?
aaah, i second that 'crowd-darling' and 'taufik hidayat' in same sentence to me is,,i dont know,, (i mean, he fought with a spectator once right?) and 'lethal weapon' could be right, but funny, sorry, no offence to the writer, at least he put some interesting words instead of writing a bland article, but many mistakes, like the location of sudirman cup final, current world champ (maybe he just assumes that lin dan is the world champ bcos he is the world no1)
i think you can download xia's video here http://bbs.btchina.net:8080/showthread.php?s=&threadid=498614 all england 2000 xia vs taufik
Xia HAS been playing in recent tournaments. You can even check the IBF player profile of him to verify it. Last time I checked, (today), he did play at the Malaysia Open. Sadly, Xia has dropped significantly in rank. He's down to 22nd I believe. Even more sadly, he's only about 2k points above the Canadian Andrew Dabeka. Nothing against Dabeka, but it's disappointing when the former World Champ is only a little above a Canadian player
What you mean don't see him in recent tournaments? Xia was playing in the aviva singapore open this year where he bowed out to teammate chen yu.
i think the guy (xia) had left his heart at athen olympic when he wasn't pick to play for china. All the jia yao wont give him back the old flames to sustain his drive and determination to win. I'm sure the speed isnt the same too. Without mental drive and speed, his ranking go landslide no matter how much other skills he have.
Xia is off topic for this thread. Suggest to search in other thread which citing about him. Therefore we should not continue discussion about Xia here.