It was quite a fast-paced interview. But I'll try my best. Taka : Yesterday we felt rather relieved because we could beat the pair whom we lost to last week's tournament. But of course the opponent (the Korean pair) was the one who had beaten 3 JPN pairs until now, and their were much more powerful than they usually had been and they were playing many shots that we had never known they did. We felt that we did quite well to stop their attacking pattern but there were times that we lost our concentration. There should have been some things that we could have done even during the opponent's momentum and powerful attacks. As until BAC we have lost in early rounds lately like R1 or R2 up, I think it was a good thing that we could get through to final this week and that we can still improve our performance gradually. Matsu : Or course winning or losing is important too, but I think it's even more important for us to be able to enjoy the game so we can feel more confident and play our best game. It's been a while since we have felt that we actually had fun in many part of the match. I think from now on we will have good days and probably more bad days this one year, but we hope the two of us won't forget while clawing up together back to the top. Interviewer : (Takahashi-san) Didn't you say that you might be in the zone on yesterday? What would you say about today? Taka : Yesterday I thought the final was going to be an all JPN match, so perhaps I was thinking and feeling about that a bit too much. I think we were in the zone too, but it turned out that we were playing the Korean pair today and probably next month or the next individual tournaments we might play against CHN pair or others too. So I guess rather than worrying about playing another JPN pair, we should be ready as every pair in the world had watched us and knew how to play against us equally. So we would like to be able to get above them all.
Why would Takahashi worry about an all-JPN match? There was one interview back in October, after TakaMatsu had returned to Japan post-Korea Open, where her partner, Matsutomo, said 「相手が日本の選手だから負けたくないとか、試合に必要のない余計な感情がずっとあったけど、相手が日本人であろうが海外の選手であろうが、やれることは変わらない」. Are they not on the same page regarding this?
Takahashi was asked about her statement the day before that their "switch might have turned on" after the semifinal. Takashi admitted that at the time she made that statement she was thinking about playing Fuku/Hiro in the final. She was probably more prepared to face Fuku/Hiro rather than the Korean because they had been able to beat Kim/Kong before the final and also that's why she said she was rather relieved that she was going to play a pair in the final whom they had managed to beat a few times before. But it turned out the Korean pair stunned both her and her partner.
The name for JPN SC team is Bird Japan, captained by Takeshi Kamura. Now, try to break this Takeshi Castle.
He is on the list: MS: Momota; Nishimoto WS: Yamaguchi; Okuhara MD: Sonoda/Kamura; Endo/Watanabe; Hoki/Kobayashi WD: Fukushima/Hirota, Takahashi/Matsutomo; Nagahara/Matsumoto XD: Watanabe/Higashino; Hoki/Nagahara
I saw a couple of pictures about JPN team yesterday. There is some photos about JPN team A and the coaches have a formal photo session with businessman-like outfit.
Japan's monthly domestic ranking list was published on May 10; this is what the order, based both on international and domestic achievements over the past two years, currently looks like: MS: 1. Momota Kento (NTT-East), National Team A, 5875 points 2. Nishimoto Kenta (Tonami), National Team A, 3705 3. Tsuneyama Kanta (Tonami), National Team A, 3690 4. Sakai Kazumasa (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 2680 5. Takeshita Riichi (Tonami) 2430 (no longer active) 6. Ueda Takuma (Nihon Unisys) 2180 (no longer active) 7. Watanabe Koki (Nihon Unisys), National Team B, 1805 8. Igarashi Yu (Nihon Unisys), National Team B, 1790 9. Koga Minoru (NTT-East), National Team B, 1745 10. Shimono Hashiru (Tonami), National Team B, 1600 (Naraoka Kodai <Namioka HS> is placed 12th with 1420 points) WS: 1. Yamaguchi Akane (Saishunkan), National Team A, 5290 points 2. Okuhara Nozomi (Taiyo Holdings), National Team A, 4595 3. Takahashi Sayaka (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 3220 4. Ohori Aya (Tonami), National Team A, 3065 5. Sato Sayaka (Yonex) 2840 6. Mitani Minatsu (NTT-East) 2485 7. Kawakami Saena (Hokuto Bank), National Team B, 2342 8. Mine Ayumi (Saishunkan), National Team B, 2275 9. Saito Shiori (ACT SAIKYO) 1895 10. Urushizaki Mako (San-in Godo Bank), National Team B, 1620 MD: 1. Sonoda/Kamura (Tonami), National Team A, 10760 points 2. Endo/Watanabe (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 8940 3. Inoue/Kaneko (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 8000 4. Hoki/Kobayashi (Tonami), National Team A, 7380 5. Koga/Saito (NTT-East), National Team B, 4650 6. Okamura/Onodera (Nihon Unisys/Waseda U), National Team B, 3757 7. Hashimoto/Saeki (Saishunkan/JTEKT) 3700 8. Matsui/Takeuchi (Hitachi) 3650 9. Kaneko/Kubota (Tonami), National Team B, 3090 10. Takano/Tsukamoto (Hitachi) 2910 WD: 1. Fukushima/Hirota (American Vape), National Team A, 11290 points 2. Takahashi/Matsutomo (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 11060 3. Nagahara/Matsumoto (Hokuto Bank), National Team A, 10900 4. Yonemoto/Tanaka (Hokuto Bank), National Team A, 8740 5. Sakuramoto/Takahata (Yonex), National Team B, 7000 6. Fukuman/Yonao (Yonex) 5890 7. Shida/Matsuyama (Saishunkan), National Team B, 5840 8. Kurihara/Shinoya (Nihon Unisys) 4650 9. Aratama/Watanabe (NTT-East) 4570 10. Higashino/Nakanishi (Nihon Unisys) 3555 XD: 1. Watanabe/Higashino (Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 9940 points 2. Hoki/Nagahara (Tonami/Hokuto Bank), National Team A, 5270 3. Kobayashi/Shida (Tonami/Saishunkan) 4310 4. Gondo/Kurihara (Tonami/Nihon Unisys), National Team A, 4265 5. Kaneko/Nakanishi (Nihon Unisys) 4110
With regard to the Australian Open (June 4-9), Imai Akihiro's name is listed amongst the team coaches due to accompany the players. As Head Coach Park Joo Bong is also attending, the group dynamics could be interesting. Yamaguchi Akane, incidentally, has withdrawn from this tournament.
Akane and Nozomi "share" the tournaments In some periods that consecutive tours 500 or tours 300 take place, they will share it. (If Akane signs, then Nozomi doesn't and vice versa). This is my thought.
She registered, but withdrawn at the last minute, it made me worry there was another reason. Just hope she's okay.
