World Badminton Championships 2011

Next week the world badminton championships come to sunny old England, namely Wembley Arena. The last time i went there was to watch the All England, many years ago. I am going down to London on the wednesday, and staying 2 nights, so i will be watching 3 days worth of play, ending with both sessions of the quarter finals on the friday. The total cost of this little trip is looking at being about £350- £400. Is it worth spending that much money to watch badminton? Of course it is! I have been watching this sport for about 20 years now, and there is just nothing like watching the best players playing live. You get to hear the sound of the shuttle on the racket much better than watching on television. You also get a much better perspective of movement and footwork.

I have just been looking at the draw, and unless i have missed something, there are no Korean entries for the mixed doubles. I wonder why this is? As far as mens singles goes, well i think it will be Lee Chong Wei vs Lin Dan in the final. Yeh i know i am really sticking my neck out with this prediction, but those 2 are in a different class to everyone else, and have been for many years now. Lin Dan has been a bit up and down during this year, whilst Lee Chong Wei has been winning virtually every tournament he has entered. As soon as he started being more aggressive a few years ago, he became a much better player, and the results started to come. He will have a lot of pressure to win his first world championships, but it is about time he did win it.

Looking at his section of the draw, he could face Park Sun Hwan in the 3rd round, and probably Chen Long in the quarters. These are the matches i will be looking out for when i go watching.

The mens doubles is a much more open tournament for me. We are blessed with some very good pairs who can all beat each other on any given day. You have Cai and Fu, TBH and KKK, Jung and Yong Dae, The danes, and Kido and Setiawan. Take your pick out of any of those, i can't predict that one.

Womens singles and doubles should go to China, they are usually the winners at the major championships. The mixed doubles is also pretty open, so that should be interesting to watch.