Wow Momota really underperformed :/ None would have thought he would be taken out by Takeshita oO No national team spot then I guess.. He did seem to struggle the most in every round after all, losing these G1. A win here would have been the perfect success story but oh well ^^'
So, if Momota doesn't get a spot on the National A team, the question is whether the national team will allow him to compete in the SS. Momota already has the required ranking to enter the qualifying rounds of the SS. Not allowing Momota to compete at the SS is just stifling his development. Players like Momota are once in a generation. At the moment, Malaysia has nothing after LCW. Indonesia never found a replacement for Taufik either. The age that Momota is at right now is a critical age. If you waste two more years of Momota's career, he may never develop to his potential. Rest assured, Denmark will keep on developing Viktor. And India will keep on developing Srikanth. Denmark and India will be more than happy for Viktor and Srikanth to dominate the next 5 years of MS while Japan looks on from the crowd.
Well, he'll be national B, so I expect they'll give him a select few opportunities at SS level. Of course, SS disappears next year, so we still have to see how many levels will be reserved for team A.
Congrats to the newbies Nagahara/ Matsumoto for beating Fukuman/ Yonao in straight sets ! They look like a really promising pair. Next opponent: the olympic champion Takamatsu, whom they beat in two straight sets last time they met in the French Open.
Just saw that they were as low as #62 in the world in July and are now #12. Also, they are national team B members and have played zero super series tournaments in the first half of the year but Korea, Japan, French and Honk Kong after that. So it's obviously not only impossible for the federation to allow b team members to play ss tournaments (hint, Momota, hint). Nevermind, just saw that apart from the Japan Open, they were basically covering for the absence of Fukuman/Yonao and there were still only 4 (magic number) wd at each of these tournaments.
Shame really. A national team of Sayako Sato + Okuhara, Yamaguchi and Mine would have made for some brilliant pictures.
Surprising final in Men's Double: Endo/ Watanabe kicking out the two-time defending champions and top ranked pair Kamura/ Sonoda in two straight games (goes to show their dip in form lately) The in-form Inoue/ Kaneko losing against Kobayashi/ Hoki in two straight games as well
In Women's Double: Fukushima/ Hirota beating last year's finalist Tanaka/ Yonemoto in straight games. Takamatsu vs Fukushima/ Hirota in the final (incidentally a repeat of last year's Semi-final which went to three games, Takamatsu winning 21-16 17-21 21-17. Head to Head is 2-2 and 2-1 for Fukushima/ Hirota in 2017
In Mixed Doubles: Watanabe/ Higashino in the final against the more surprising Kobayashi/ Shida Chiharu Both Kobayashi and Watanabe will have to play two finals tomorrow
Congratulations Aya Ohori to make it to the National A Team One year later than what she hoped but still a big achievement