there were quite a few undeniable factors mentioned:
- jet lag
- food
- format
- etc
format is a point for sure. double eliminition ensures shane always a second chance in the tourney. So they top player has to be beaten twice by weaker players... there is anyway a significant below 50%-chance for weaker players beating shane. to do that twice is much less likely.
i wud like to throw in an other argument and see what u guys think about it: INTIMIDATION FACTOR! At later stages in US tourneys there is pretty much the same couple of dozen players battling it out among them. I say all of them have a negative head-to-head against shane. We all know, u shud not change ur game depending on the opponent but play the percentages. but experience taught us otherwise in many cases. if u play a guy for the 10th time and u have won only once and mainly by luck or the other having a bad day... it is very hard to go into that much being convinced to win this time.
when shane is going abroad, many of the players dont know shane that well and havent played him much or even ever. So shane loses his intimidation factor. combining this with the factors mentioned above and his obvious inability to adapt as easy as other cosmopolitan players.. é voilà we get to where we are. shane getting usually to the last 16 of wpa events but not winning much.
I am convinced that if shane was to battle it out against ANY player in the world over an entire week, various disciplines, short and long sets, alternate, winner-break and whatever... shane wud prevail over almost all of them. maybe alex and dennis cud have a slight edge but i cannot think of anyone else.
I predict that in 30 years, shane will rival efren's status as the greatest to have ever picked up the cue!
Please elaborate

bicki