Unbelievable, in G3, He Bingjiao appeared often half a step slower than Intanon and was trailing for the most part but somehow she managed to close the deficit and forced deuce ! Then in the intriguing battle of the deuces, HBJ emerged triumphant, winning by a whisker, 24-22 ! Still, I feel HBJ got to work on her fitness/stamina, a leaner body will make her nimbler.
HBJ sent too many shots out at the side lines in the early part of the third set to put herself under a lot of pressure. I think she has cut down her body weight. Her 2nd win over RI.
Yeah, she appeared sluggish and error-prone in G2 and , esp, in the first half of G3, and it's only in the second half or last third of the decider that she somehow tightened her game and with sheer tenacity and perseverance fought her way back to force deuce and won the battle of the deuces after holding matchpoints four times to go 25-23 finally. Actually, at the G3 interval, I already written HBJ off but to my amazement she crawled her way back point by point from 5-12, 10-17,17-19, 17-20, to reach deuce 20-all, then 21-20, 22-21, 23-22, 24-23 before sealing it 25-23. Really to close to call. Not the neatest way to win but good for her nerves. He Bingjiao's previous victory was better, at the Swiss Open'16 in March, by the score of 14-21,21-18, and 21-13. With this narrow win, she stands favourably 2-0 in their H2H.
Can't really tell if she's shed some more weight from the livestream. Somehow, if there're close-ups, I can well imagine seeing her fully flushed, breathing heavily and even panting, that's been the kind of image she gave me every time I see her play on TV. The worst was the one - still etched in my mind - where she played Saena Kawakami at the Sky New Zealand GPG final in May 2015 when she practically bent double and then held on to her stomach in pain, cramping, after a punishing rally; you guessed it , she lost that match, 16-21 and 18-21, though she later went on to avenge the defeat in the WJC team event in Nov 2015, by 18-21,21-17 and 21-13.
It is in HBJ's nature to go for tight net shots, cross-court or otherwise, and send her drop shots and smashes close to the lines, often with a lot of deceptions. If she pulls them off she wins comfortably. Otherwise, her fans will be kept on tenterhooks until she huffs and puffs her way to a 3- set victory. My observation is that she , like LXR , sometimes defeats her own self. The only reason I prefer to watch her play to LXR is because I always like to watch lefties play.
WXS and WHY just retired? Where is the news about their retirements? Have they filed the paper with BWF? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Where have you been? The news is in BWF, badzine and badmintoncentral' China badminton thread, and the players' own individual thread in China badminton subforum