I have to say that I'm also very, very impressed that she was able to keep up her form on top level for two weeks in a row. Overall, she seems to be a lot fitter compared to when I saw her at the Swiss Open last February. If she keeps following that path, she has everything that's needed to become a constant Top-5 player. I would say that already today, she is a serious threat to anybody in the world when she's having a good day. I'm looking forward to seeing where she will be in one year and five years from now.
Wang Yihan who recently asserted Li Xuerui is the most complete player,a class above the rest, once singled out He Bingjiao for fulsome praise among the young cohort. http://sports.qq.com/a/20161215/004822.htm "...国羽前一姐王仪涵曾对何冰娇赞赏有加，称其有一定天赋，也到了出成绩的时候。" Former CHN No.1 WS Wang Yihan once praised He Bingjiao highly, stating definitely she has innate talent and it's time for her to achieve excellent results.
Allow me to post my reply to Devendra here from the AE'17 tournament thread for relevancy and continuation of discussion, if anybody wishes. G3 aside, He Bingjiao is the better player. But , on the whole,I still think she adopted the wrong strategy playing too aggressively and trying to finish off the rally quickly. It's very different from her creative attacking and deceptive game that she used to play. I strongly feel she should construct her rally more and not attack prematurely, combining the best of Wang Shixian's placement skills and Li Xuerui in attack mode as well as some of Wang Yihan's 'bulldozer' tactics. After narrowly losing G2, particularly at the crucial stage 19-17 when I thought she could've have won. Perhaps Chen Jin wanted her to try and outattack Marin and she didn't quite get it right in G2, going for the lines and doing that little bit extra, leaving little to no room for error, and being a somewhat error-prone player, the mistakes flowed. In G3, I sensed she couldn't get over the narrow miss in G2, unable to put it behind her quickly, became agitated, ended up fighting herself more than her opponent and literally threw away the game. Let that painful lesson sink in and serves as an impetus to do better going forward. IMHO, HBJ must strike a balance between ferocious attack and her naturally inclination to be creative and deceptive; in other words, don't rush, construct the rally and go for the attack as and when the opportunity presents itself with sudden injection of pace. Her mentality was affected by the strategy she adopted which I believed runs counter to her natural inclination. At this stage, I don't see a mental frailty issue, more of loss of focus in the decider when she lost G2 by mishandling the crucial points at 19-17 up. If she had been more patient and construct the rally more, the pressure would be more on Marin to close the gap two points away from defeat, then the chances of He Bingjiao coming out on top in G2 to wrap up the match would be higher. How HBJ's game unravelled in G3 was her own making. I have to admit mental toughness is Marin's strong point but I believe the 19-year-old He Bingjiao - she will turn 20 in Mar 21 - has the talents and ability to take on Marin, or any opponent for that matter, and all she needs is more exposure and gain more experience. As she matures in the years to come,growing up and understanding herself better, we should likely see her ascend the summit. We'll see. Li Xuerui's case is most unfortunate, I doubt it'll be repeated in He Bingjiao's case, she seems to me a different character from LXR. Call me an optimist if you like,it's my intuition speaking. Let the future tell.
In addition,remember how He Bingjiao acquitted herself against the then WJC Akane Yamaguchi on home soil at the Nanjing Youth Olympics 2014 where she is under pressure to perform and deliver in front of the Chinese crowd. It was a memorable match, hard and well fought, and she held her nerves to emerge triumphant taking gold.
One more point, I'd like to say that G3 meltdown against Marin should be just one of those days that happen to a young, developing player who is suddenly thrust to the fore when her three elite seniors abruptly left the scene, forcing her as well as Sun Yu and Chen Yufei to assume the mantle ahead of time, prematurely; hence the added pressure to perform when they are not fully ready for it.
If you think He Bingjiao beating Akane at Nanjing YOG enjoyed homeground advantage, then I'd say for a mentally fragile player, the added stress of the burden of expectation would be worse and aggravating. A mentally weak player is unlikely to thrive under such pressure. Only an underdog mentality would benefit from it and allow her to rise to the occasion playing above herself.
Another thing, remember the recent inaugural Asia Mixed Team final where apparently both Shi Yuqi and, to a lesser extent, Chen Yufei, both suffered an attack of nerves. Does it mean , all three, i.e. these two and He Bingjiao, are afflicted with the Li Xuerui syndrome ? If true, it is a serious and uncannily widespread problem in Team China. No, I very much doubt that is the case, too much of a coincidence, more like an isolated case of nervous breakdown brought on by the big occasion for the inexperienced youngsters. Even the young Lin Dan's maiden Olympic outing ended in disaster in the opening round at Athens 2004. Besides, Li Xuerui's mentality issue manifested in the individual majors, not for the team majors where so far she has won all her matches in every Uber and Sudirman Cups she partook.Unfortunately, it's been four years since she first captured the most coveted prize of Olympic gold at the relatively young age of 21 which immediately thrust her into the leading WS role for Team CHN, and it has been taking a toll on her at the following world championships and Olympic games till today. Still not sure when or if she can overcome the demon in her going forward. For the three aforementioned, HBj, SYQ and CYF, I believe they will gain much-needed experience and draw valuable lessons from their respective encounters which will put them in good stead in future.
Furthermore, if you watch the He Bingjiao - Carolina Marin match closely, most (not nearly all) of Marin's points came from HBJ's unforced errors. Personally, I'm looking forward to their next encounter for which I expect HBJ to prevail, provided she resolves those problems I pointed out above.
Justin, I was not even thinking about He Bingjiao right now. She is a player under development. We can only know for sure after 2 years, the way she shapes out to be. For me, she is a skilled youngster with potential, nothing else.
No wonder HBJ played like a amateur recently,..she still has a knee injury, and had to pulled out of the China masters. Now I feel guilty for hmm 'cursing' her :xD
Oh dear, He Bingjiao withdrew from the CHN Masters next week due to knee injury ? I'm guilty too for chiding her , even telling her to "Go Home." Actually, I'm like a doting parent who scolded her out of genuine care and concern, out of love. Now I feel bad and apologetic towards her.
I sincerely hope HBJ's injury is minor and that after a short rest, she can still go to the Sudirman Cup and take part in the Glasgow WC.
Where did you get the infor from? No wonder in her matches sgainst CGY and ZBW she played like she did not have the will to win, more like trying to chalk up some respectable scores will do.
That was an old injury, she already carried it during the CBSL. I think it's acting up again and bothering her. She's listed to play in the BAC. Wish her a speedy recovery.
Ah, yes, I remember now, at the CBSL, she fell in one of the matches and had a bump on her knee but shose to carry on after a while. In fact the sport commentator , Gong Weijie,also touched on her minor injury nagging her after her return from the European tour which affected her performance at the CHN Open PSS the week after, Actually,in the whole of her young career, she had never played so ,any tournaments non-stop , five events in two months and travelled so much before; despite a successful campaign, winning three tournaments out of five, two SS and one GPG, namely the KOR Open SS and the French SS and the Bitburger GPG, she's overstretched mentally and physically by the stint and her form suddenly took a dip upon returning to China. I trust, He Bingjiao , who just turned 20 on March 21st, won't just go away, what with her extraordinary talent that earned the highest praise from none other than Wang Yihan who singled her out as the most promising of the women's singles juniors.
I hope and I believe it is time He Bingjiao makes a breakthrough and doing so at the ongoing BAC will be just right. Go for it ! JiaYou ! He Bingjiao !
He Bingjiao, your future is in your hands. The most pressing issue for you now is to train your fitness and stamina. Once that's resolved, you would be among the top few, then continue to work on your game and gain experience to ascend the summit. All the best. You can do it.
Whatever is happening to you, He Bingjiao ? Since you came back from the European tour last year winning three titles, you've been pathetic as a player, a pale shadow of your former self. SIGH.
