Here's my take on the top 3 performing pairs in the recent Denmark and French Super Series, in no particular order. Basically, each of them beat one and lost to the other: Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido: In Denmark, Hendra was not in the best form and thus Markis Kido had to do too much with his bad knee. This caused their downfall in the Denmark SS semifinals (which was not as close as the scoreline suggested). It has to be said that Boe/Mogensen were in excellent form in that match. However, in Paris, Hendra's magical interceptions at the net came back in the last 2 games of the final, such that Koo (who's net form is a bit on and off) was outplayed. This reduced the burden on Kido (in fact, he was hardly under pressure) and thus they trooped off worthy winners of French SS. Excellent buildup of play from the Olympic Champs, irrespective of them having to hand over the World No 1 tag to their opponents. Koo Kien Kiat/Tan Boon Heong: A commendable effort from both players (Tan especially) although Koo was clearly not at his best in both events. Tan carries forward his good form from the recent World Championships (where he also outshone Koo), had better angle and penetration with his smashes and is more confident at the net area, something that has been missing since All-England 2007. However, one glaring aspect of their game is missing, the change of pace shots. Instead, they were caught napping quite a few times by both their close oppositions, especially the Danes. Defensively, they gave the opposition too much respect. Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe: Based on in-game performance alone, I would say that this Danish pair were the best performing of all three. The only reason they failed to win a title was because of lack of consistency in the game; often they would drop a cheap sequence of points after having taken a sequence of points themselves. Otherwise they clearly outshone the other two pairs in terms of defence, change of pace and quality of attack. The fact is, Boe and Mogensen played better when trailing behind but is not adept at taking the bull by the horns when they are leading. This caused them to fail at the latter stages of the 3rd game in Denmark SS final. Nonetheless, with this performance, I would say that they are now in the top 4 material among the best MD pairs as long as they maintain their consistency.
As always from our dear brother abedeng, this is what I call OBJECTIVE COMMENTS! Very detailed and to the point analysis, unlike those based on interpretation of TS graphs and stuffs. I am pretty sure abedeng will not boldly predict that Koo/Tan will return home with two European titles, while the INA pair will get trounced by the Japanese pair from his own analysis and reading of the Denmark SS matches, esp involving Koo/Tan and Kido/Hendra (esp the one against Boe/Mogensen). Thumbs up!
It's amazing how Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen have improved SO MUCH over the space of 1 year They were still playing GP & GP Gold Events last year.
actually,koo/tan did come back home with 2 ss title from europe hehe one swiss open title and one denmark open title