Saina in the post match interview "We were actually discussing that. We did not know who won the last individual medal for india . Gopi sir said keep the phone away," said the world no 10 Indian. "Ratchanok was playing strong and I knew she will challenge me today. I was taking her seriously, she had beaten Sung Ji Hyun in the previous match and first time I saw her playing well against a rally player," Saina said. Talking about her tactics after falling behind in the opening game, Saina said, "I was not moving that well initially but after 12-3 I opened up and I started picking up those tough shots." "Then one-two rallies happened and there I saw her getting tired but she was very tough. She was playing attacking." "She had the lead, I had the good record against her, crowd was shouting (for Indonesian player on adjacent court), so mmany things were playing in my mind. You could not hear the shuttle (due to noise), you have to be alert."
Wouldn't be the first time a forgettable XD pair won the XD Gold at the AG Although Shin Bark Cheol and Lee HJ did well in other pairings over their career, which I really don't see happening for the HKG pair Too bad for the Chinese combination, they look fairly promising, could've been a very lofty start for their career as a pair to appear in the WC and AG finals in one year, possibly take home a Gold too...
The only two teams i have heard Indonesian crowd chanting are IN DO NESIA and INDIAA INDIAA lolz So i guess she cant be thankful enough of INA crowd
Did she thank them, though? To me it reads more like they were a distraction. Although maybe that could play into her cards if she was more resistant to it than RI
Exactly. She wasn't thanking them. Imo what she meant was the scoreboard pressure, RI's improvement, SN's inability to move freely, Crowd and the pressure to perform everything played a role (adversely)! But I am glad she won, esp in straight sets. I expected to win her, but that was a very slugish start. PS: her statements are always bold albeit true, can be controversial sometimes. "She had beaten Sung Ji Hyun in the previous match and first time I saw her playing well against a rally player" I for one like it.
TakaMatsu happy after their win over Polii/Rahayu probably because they knew too that they stood a better chance to win gold now that FukuHiro are out. Hope they can repeat MAS Open result against Chen/Jia. Definitely rooting for JPN!! Low-key rooting for Tang/Tse as well. They gained my support after I watched their BWF profile feature video. They work so hard and I hope they make it!
Here's my prediction for Badminton Individual Event #ASIANGAMES2018: WD Misaki MATSUTOMO [2] Ayaka TAKAHASHI CHEN Qingchen [3] JIA Yifan Greysia POLII [4] Apriyani RAHAYU Yuki FUKUSHIMA [1] Sayaka HIROTA XD ZHENG Siwei [1] HUANG Yaqiong TANG Chun Man [4] TSE Ying Suet Tontowi AHMAD [3] Liliyana NATSIR WANG Yilyu [2] HUANG Dongping
MD Marcus Fernaldi GIDEON [1] Kevin Sanjaya SUKAMULJO LI Junhui [2] LIU Yuchen Fajar ALFIAN Muhammad Rian ARDIANTO LEE Jhe-Huei LEE Yang MS Anthony Sinisuka GINTING Jonatan CHRISTIE Kenta NISHIMOTO [8] CHOU Tien Chen [4] WS TAI Tzu Ying [1] Akane YAMAGUCHI [2] Saina NEHWAL PUSARLA V. Sindhu [3] We'll see soon!
I personally hope that Ginting takes it! He deserves it the most having downed Momota and CL. If he beats CTC he would’ve beaten 3 seeds already on the way while JC woul’ve beaten only SYQ if ever. Very anticlimactic and unfair (or at least in my perspective) if the other players were the ones to capitalize on it.
That's not unfair. You can only beat what's before you. On top of that, someone may have a better match up against a particular opponent...