OLYMPICS : Home Advantage or the "Xu Factor" ?

Saturday, 09 August 2008 10:32

The Olympic hosts, China, could sweep the gold medals in badminton. They have 3 representations in each of men’s singles, women’s singles and women’s doubles, and 2 representations in men’s doubles and mixed doubles. With such a high likelihood of Chinese gold medallists, or at least finalists, the rest of the world will be struggling to conjur up some special magic that can give them the edge over the Chinese masters and their multitudes of fans. One could call this “The Xu Factor”.

By Aaron Wong, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Badmintonphoto

With family, friends, and comrades cheering, predictions of Chinese medals on home soil are hard to resist, like they were with the Australians at the Sydney Olympics. Australia, a country with a population of 21 million, placed 4th in the medal haul (gold as well as overall) and only behind the United States, Russia and China who each have hundreds of millions of people.

Let’s briefly explore then the phenomenon of beating a local player and how often it happens.

Someone possessing an outstanding achievement in this regard is Xu Huaiwen (photo), who represents Germany. She is a twice European Champion by beating Tine Rasmussen when the final was played in Denmark in 2007, as well as defeating Mia Audina Tjiptawan at the 2006 edition in Holland. Xu also won the 2005 Dutch Open over Yao Jie.

Who else has the "Xu Factor"?

For this phenomenon to occur, the host nation definitely needs to be strong at badminton in order to supply a candidate who can make it to the final. This criterion alone eliminates most tournaments and narrows down to roughly 3/4 of the Super Series tournaments.

Let’s first acknowledge that reaching a Super Series final is itself a supreme effort, and to have it happen in one’s own country must be extra special. Woe is the local favourite who is defeated in front of hopeful supporters. So near and yet so far. On the other hand, it is extra special jubilation to climb on top of a home favourite.

In the short history of the Super Series, which commenced in January 2007, China’s Mixed Doubles

stars Gao Ling/Zheng Bo are the only players with 2 wins in finals over home court hopefuls, which is greater than anyone else’s record. This was at the Indonesia Open and the All England.

Judging from the list given below, Korea and China lead in the success stakes when their players have reached their home Super Series finals. China also has the distinction of occupying 9 out of 10 finals across their 2 events. In other words, few players have summoned the Xu Factor against the Koreans and Chinese. At the same time, a clean sweep by a host or another country has yet to occur.

Chinese players have exuded the Xu Factor 5 times, which is more than the next in line who are the Malaysians at 3 times.

On the upside for the Olympics hosts is that only once has more than 1 event gone to a foreigner when locals appear in multiple finals.

On the downside, having a world #1 as hometown hope is no guaranteed win as Xie Xingfang (photo) found herself vulnerable at the China Open. A host’s strongest event is also not a sure thing, take for instance the Indonesia Open which did not feature either the world #1 or world#3 Indonesians in the mixed doubles final.

Download Badzine's Guide to the Olympics to read who will be wishing they have the "Xu Factor", including the namesake herself. She has this to say about the Beijing challenge in her event: "There are three Chinese players participating but playing in their home country puts a lot of pressure on them and two of them have never played at the Olympics before."

Badminton at the Beijing Games unfolds today.

SUPER SERIES 2007

Malaysia Open
2 local finalists. 50% local success.
Xu Factor: Zhu Lin (China) def. Wong Mew Choo 21-15, 21-12

Korea Open
2 local finalists in 1 event. All-Korean final.
No Xu Factor.

All England
1 local finalist. 0% local success.
Xu Factor: Gao Ling/Zheng Bo (China) def. Donna Kellogg/Anthony Clark All England 16-21, 21-18, 21-14

Indonesia Open
1 local finalist. 0% local success
Xu Factor: Zheng Bo/Gao Ling (China) def. Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir 21-16, 21-11

China Masters
5 local finalists in 5 events. 1 All Chinese final. 80% local success.
Xu Factor: Lilyana Natsir/Vita Marissa (Indonesia) def. Zhao Tingting/Yang Wei 12-21, 21-15, 21-16

Denmark Open
1 local finalist. 0% local success
Xu Factor: Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (Malaysia) def. Martin Lungaard Hansen/Jens Eriksen 14-21, 21-14, 21-12

French Open
1 local finalist. - 0% local success
Xu Factor: Xie Xingfang (China) def. Pi Hongyan, 21-13, 21-13

China Open
4 local finalists. 60% local success.
Xu Factor: Wong Mew Choo (Malaysia) def. Xie Xingfang 21-16, 8-21, 21-17

SUPER SERIES 2008

Malaysia Open
1 local finalist. 100% local success.
No Xu Factor.
100% local succes

Korea Open
2 local finalists. 100% local success.
No Xu Factor.

Indonesia Open
4 local finalists. 50% local success
Xu Factor: Zhu Lin (China) def. Maria Kristin Yulianti 21–18, 17–21, 21–14
Xu Factor: Zakry Abdul Latif & Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari (Malaysia) def. Tony Gunawan & Candra Wijaya 19–21, 21–18, 21–1

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