All England 2003

[TedHuat]

What a fantastic line up for the All England this year. And they will all probably be back in May again for the Worlds!! BA of E have done well to get TV on Grandstand and Sky.

Looking at the draws there are 9 English players in the mens singles, 4 in the main draw and 5 in the qualifying. The Ladies singles is similar, 4 in the main draw and 4 in the qualifying. I wonder how many English players entered and have not been accepted even for the qualifying singles?

Just to compare I have looked at the last Danish Open which was a 4* event the same as the All England. Probably the All England is stronger but it is interesting to note that there were 28 Danes in their qualifying mens singles of which 4 qualified (Gade being one of them!!) and another 8 taken straight into the main draw. In the Ladies there were 2 in the Qualifying (neither qualified) and 4 in the main draw.

At the All England there are 4 Danes in the mens singles qualifying and 6 in the main draw. In the ladies there is 1 in the qualifying and 3 in the main draw.

If we look at our entry for the Danish Open mens singles we had 4 in the main draw (all lost first round without winning as set!!) and none in the qualifying. In the ladies singles we had 2 in the main draw (one got to the QF and the other lost first round) and none in the qualifying.

I wonder why there is such a disparity?

Lets hope that we can have some good singles results this year and start to make progress against the world's best.

[HarryBullocks]

You seem to know alot about tournaments Ted!!! I agree that there needs to be more entries by english players, especially to one of their own tournaments. The bottom line is Denmark is far stronger than we are, not only in mens singles but all the events. What do you propose should be done about this Ted???

p.s ever thought of becoming a full time coach.

[ianfibb]

I am amazed, Ted, how much research you seem to have done on both international and national results/players? It is good to see such a healthy interest in our sport.
As for the the All England, having watched an excellent Nationals last weekend, I am really looking forward to seeing our players compete against the very best. The standard seemed to be so good that I am sure they are all going to do very well.

[Michael Banks]

Some very educated comments.

Is it me or is someone having a conversation with themselves? ;)

[pnh]

Remember, that organizers of Danmark Open 2002 opened the qualifying draw to more players as usual (probably because othervise Gade couldn't participate because of low world ranking ;-)).

By the way - where you can see the draws of AE?

[danbelcher]

On BBC Grandstand last year, when the All England highlights were shown, Jo Goode said that they could have pretty much as many english pairs as they liked in the draw. Perhaps this is why the danes had so many in their Open.

[dlp]

There are many english players in the levels and singles who can not even get in qualifying

Due to it being a world champs year the entry is strong. Few of our players play enough events on the world tour to get the ranking points to get in.

The draws and qula draws are at the bae website or worldbadminton, I'm sure there will be a link in the news section here soon.