Was he the one who was warned and deducted a point in one of the tournaments for the same issue? Why hasn't he fixed this?
Too bad pranoy injured, else it will be nail biting. SYQ is ready to retire soon after this tournament and if he doesn't reach semis. Looks aging like ctc and nkl type.
Yup, whatever the umpire allows is not cheating, it's in the BWF rules and regulations. Didn't, for example, Kim Ga Eun took medical timeout in her Team Final match with He Bingjiao when the latter caught up to 14-15 ( thereby reducing a big deficit ) - just to get some analgesic spray and break HBJ's rhythm and momentum?! We can recall how Morten Frost in the commentary box used to suggest that players at critical moments to resort to any tactical tricks that don't obviously violate the rulebooks to "stop" the run of points by the opponent. In that LSF's case, at the wrong time at deuces and was duly penalized by the umpire, I'd put it down to his raw inexperience, a momentary lapse, or plain ignorance of the occasion, perhaps, just a silly, simple,stupid mistake ; as it turned out then and later, he indeed had a nagging bruise or something on his left (or is it right?) toe which bugged him a few more times in later matches and tournaments. I won't read too much into it, it appears to me LSF has a certain childlike innocence about him the way he expresses his joy and celebrates his victory; well, you can say,in a sense, overly - hmmm...somehow, it reminds me of Chou Tien Chen, in another somewhat similar manner. To each his own.