Tag Good

It has been a surprisingly good run of tournaments for badminton with no BWF rule change nonsense. And it had to come from a string of lower tournaments, the Australia Super 500 to the 3 Super 300s from Macau, US and Canada. Why can’t BWF let things be like these tournaments instead of trying to screw things up with imaginary problems?

It was surprising that the countries which are not big on badminton are able to hold tournaments flawlessly, where the focus was solely on the badminton on court, and not nonsense which have dominated the bigger tournaments earlier. BWF have go to take a good look at itself in the mirror and learn from these 4 countries which just held the tournaments flawlessly.

The focus of the sport is the sport itself, not some nonsensical rule change just to “freshen” things up. I hold the rule of “If it is not broken, don’t fix it” dear. BWF lately has been moving in the opposite direction. Let’s just focus on the rule which will have the biggest impact of all: 15 x 3 scoring format.

Australia Open

The Australia Open final had no matches with rubber games. All were won in straight sets. The mixed doubles was won in 52 minutes. The women’s double, traditionally the longest games in terms of time, lasted for 59 minutes. The remaining men’s singles, women’s singles and men’s doubles we all around 40 plus minutes long. So, the average duration of a match on finals day was under 50 minutes.

Do we even need to reduce the duration of the matches further? Absolutely not. Do we need to speed things up with the 25 seconds rule between rallies? Absolutely not. The matches are short enough as it is. Any shorter, it makes badminton not watchable.

Macau Open

Next let’s look at the final of the Macau Open. The women’s singles duration was 39 minutes, the women’s doubles was 46 minutes, the men’s double stretched 3 games and lasted 1 hour and 2 minutes, the mixed doubles was 31 minutes and the men’s singles was a marathon 1 hour and 1 minute.

The men’s events which lasted more than an hour were good watches. Excellent badminton matches with a lot of emotion. It was not too long either, and both were good matches for the final.

Again, the question here is, do these matches in the final need to be shorter? Absolutely not.

US Open

At the US Open, the mixed doubles which opened the finals day lasted 25 minutes. The women’s singles which lasted 57 minutes went to 3 games. The men’s doubles last 1 hour and 3 minutes, and it too went to 3 games. The women’s doubles surprisingly laster only 36 minutes while the men’s singles lasted 1 hour and 1 minute after going into 3 games.

There is no part which suggest the games were too long and needed to be shortened whatsoever. And, thankfully, the match officials did no such thing. They just let the badminton do the talking, and I am very thankful for that. This was more enjoyable to watch than the tournaments before which were trying out the 25 seconds clock.

So, does the finals day here need to be shortened into the 3 x 15 points format? Nah. No need. It went so well.

Canada Open

At the Canada Open, went so well too, and provided some memorable matches, especially the mixed doubles final. Highly entertaining and extremely fun to watch, Koga throwing his magic with Saito being her efficient best, while Liu was always grinning and laughing at Koga’s antics throughout the entire match. Hsu was perhaps the only adult on court throughout the entire match, maintaining a professional and serious approach.

It was the highlight of the finals day, and even though the match lasted 1 hour and 7 minutes, it felt like it was too short. The entertainment value of this match was just so good. The umpire let the game flow and this allowed the badminton to speak for itself. This is what a good match should look like. And there is absolutely no need to change things the way it is. We watch badminton for matches like these, and we want it to be LONGER, not SHORTER. But, having it longer is not going to be possible, so better to let it stay as it is.

The women’s singles final went for 54 minutes, and the absolutely adorable Riko Gunji who grins all the time proved to be a worth winner, landing some excellent tactical shots. The women’s doubles went for a rather quick 46 minutes, and the men’s doubles went on for 57 minutes despite it requiring a rubber game to conclude. And the men’s singles went for 43 minutes.

The overall length of the matches are just about right for badminton. Under an hour, with some highly entertaining matches. Some wonderful matches stretch for more than an hour, and that actually felt short as I would definitely not want these matches to end!

Conclusion

As a spectator, I cleared up my calendar and paid good money to see the matches. I want more value, which just means, longer high quality matches. And BWF be damned. If BWF wants more money, BWF better listen to the spectators.

That’s because, this is where your money is coming from, BWF. Ignore your spectators and you will suffer a huge backlash, and the money is going to dry up when the fans and spectators start a boycott or some other movement against you.

Heed this warning, BWF. It would not be good when the fans turns against you.

That’s it for this entry.

Until the next entry, eat well, get plenty of rest and keep the badminton going!