Yes, slowing the pace down and lifting high and deep is the way to play against them in my view. Which is one of the reasons why they struggled against LYD/YYS as they never hesitated to lift to them, very comfortable in defending and waiting for the counter attack. Because of their height, KS/GF are both quite limited in what they can do in the rear court, KS clearly lacks power but unlike his compatriot MA, who not only had a big smash for someone relatively small, he was quite accurate with the smash and often went for the side lines which the Koreans struggled with. But sustaining heavy smashing for a small guy is not easy. MA was only really able to play 3/4 heavy smashes before he was tired and either rotated or reverted back to drops, half smashes. I don't think KS necessarily needs to develop a big smash, given that he is best in the forecourt and that his speed allows him to rotate with GF quite easily. I think of the two, GF needs to improve his rear court ability more to help deliver opportunities for KS to get involved. As much as I like Goh/Tan, I don't think they have the flat-play skills to worry an on-form KS/GF. Tan is not particularly good in the forecourt, Goh is a good all-rounder but his net skills are not quite on par with KS to be able to force lifts readily. If Goh/Tan can force lifts consistently, they will be able to exploit their strong attacking skills and it'll be a good game.
I don't get you, why can't they use older models, for marketing purpose? FYI, both racket models are not discontinued and is available in retails (also available in www.sunriseclick.com). You should write in to Yonex Japan Corp to ask them, why they allowed Gideon and Kevin to use older models, LOL............ In my opinion, as long as the racket suitable for their playing style, no matter new or old models, that should not be a problem.
Quite simple. Before injury, Gideon is just an ordinary human. After injury, he becomes an extraordinary human. I think he got bit by a spider in the hospital and turned to be a Spiderman-like. Kevin is still the same, fast, strong and tricky as always. But Gideon is really the difference maker. He improved a lot and it's quite hard to find his weaknesses.
Watching AE makes me feel that Gideon is a bit of a Ko Sung Hyun in the mentality department; crackable under pressure and repeated attacks on him. It feels like you can get through his defense with repeated attacks.
Tan not good in the forecourt? What? I think he is one of the strongest in that area at the moment, he was really good at the Olympics and the Super Series Finals (haven't seen much else because of bwf's crappy channel strategy). My personal issue with this pairing is the Fernaldi serve, I have no freaking clue how he isn't faulted every single time. It's WAY illegal. It has to be 15-20cm high, there's no grey area/toeing the line there, it's just plain illegal, all the time. Even worse than Yoo, whose serve I loathed as well. What's up with bwf service judges, why don't they have a spine anymore? I can't recall many faults at all recently, yet I've seen an astounding number of ridiculously high serves...
it's simple. poor training. what i hate is when they automatically call a fault on a flick serve. more than 75% of faulted flick serves were not faults on the slo-mo replays i've seen.
Yeah, but in their defense, a flick often looks higher than it is in real time. At the same time, I can't get over how high a short serve they just let pass, like Fernaldi and Yoo - they were/are beyond anything even resembling legal height, on every single serve I see from a side perspective, yet I don't see a lot of faults called. I miss actual service judging. The 2009 AE final was a funny one in that respect, with Han Sang Hoon pulling his shorts up to make his waist look higher
i wouldn't say 'easily'... he can't control the game from the back court due to his relative lack of power. he's one of the 4 quickest, and definitely(!) the most fun to watch when his speed is not neutralized.
He's absolutely the best to watch, extremely entertaining no one comes close to his flair and exuberance.
