{ http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=8D30BB85-24FF-44F0-AE76-65A3CFF9D9FD } Ajay Jayaram of India has pulled out from this tournament.
Momota just went passed the 1st round against Scott. Scott gave good resistance by using various deceptive shots to win over a point from Kento, but he in the end was outclassed. Kento was simply faster and has more stamina than him. Kento was mainly only waiting for the rally to get longer and let Scott made an error. Overall good practice for Momota-ro to have a sparring partner with the same shot quality and have experience to play deceptive shots like Scott, especially before meeting HK Vittinghus at the QF
Although he had the game under control, I thought that Momota looked out of form. Is Scott Evans usually such a difficult opponent?
I thought Momota was taking it easy, he has got a few matches to go. I suspect you will see a little more fired up Momota against Vittinghus and Tzu Wei Wang
he looked relax (actually shows how confident he on himself) but also looked too relax such that he looked rusty especially that he made lots of mistake by himself, maybe because he start to get bored with the easy wins in the past few months. he looks not 'sharp' at all though and this requires good opponent have such sharpness which he doesnt have at the moment, but it is difficult to say on how will he play against the big players. lets see
Excerpt from a Badminton Europe article (http://www.badmintoneurope.com/cms/default.aspx?clubid=4685&cmsid=239&pageid=5381&m=5124268) Vittinghus travels to the Netherlands as third seed and all things considered should be value for the seeding. However, the Dane finds himself in the same side of the draw as Momota with both due to meet as early as the quarter final. While the Japanese star has been invincible around Europe these past weeks at International Challenge level there have been some signs of fatigue from the former world number 2. Thomas Rouxel should have taken a set off the Japanese in last week’s final in Brno so a player of Vittinghus’ calibre should be able to exploit any weakness. Vittinghus also arrives to Almere a lot fresher than Momota and with a match between both likely to be won by fine margins the large Dutch crowd may just have a say if they can get behind Vittinghus and get one of our great European entertainers across the line. “I am content with the draw although I would have liked to avoid Momota as early as the quarter final” says Vittinghus “On the other hand I hope to get to that match as it will be a perfect test for me and great fun to play him again.” Both Vittinghus and Momota will also have to deal with the significant threat from the defending champion and top seed Wang Tzu Wei.
Today Wang tzu wei escaped by the skin of his teeth against some fourth tier player from India, Pratul Joshi. It was 21 -19 for him in the third set. So, it is unlikely to beat a player like Momota. Today , though kento momota was rusty against Veteran Scott Evans , he was solid at the end.
I just realised this tournament is snubbing Taipei Players. Not a single Taipei player has had/will have a match on Court 1 or 2 in the first three days of the competition. @racketman123 @renbo
Why? There is no hawk eye . Then what is the problem of watching other courts? Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
Momota plays much better in the game against Pablo Abian today. He stepped his game to gear 3 from only at gear 2 yesterday and in the previous month. He is playing with speed and agression, thereby he is always in control of the game (besides the first half of the first set). His attack now look menacing and the control on her stroke increased but the defence still look awry. The meeting with Vittinghus tomorrow will be very interesting even though it looks like Momota will overcome HKV if he plays at this gear. Probably he is at the level of Wang Tzu Wei or Tian Houwei at the moment.