Except that both Zheng/Huang and Wang /Huang didn't get to play Praveen.Melati, not sure if they have figured out how to deal with the INA pair. We await their next encounter.
Totally. Yet a lot of people don't seem to understand that. We don't have all information to be able to judge player's decisions. We literally have no ideas of what's going on behind the scene, physically or mentally. It's just baffling to constantly see all those comments judging and criticising the athletes on every single tournament thread for their decision. For TTY we don't know but she was wearing a sort of strap around the left knee during the previous matches.
As usual, theJPN WD pair has better stamina to keep smashing and they are also very good retrievers. Can the KOR coach communicate in Mandarin? I hope so, perhaps a smattering.
Some people: "How dare anyone speculate about the athletes' decision to retire. It is their body, only they know it." The same people: "Of course Axelsen losses against Momota are a mental thing. It is a psychological issue that is well known."
CYF looks rather good, didn't expect her to get back so soon so good. It's her tournament to loose, but then again I thought the same for WC. Now that ASY has announced herself to the big picture, CYF isn't the youngest top gun. Home victory will do lot of good to her
Perfect draw. All the players that regularly beat her are out, injured, or both, and what remains is physically inferior RI, generally inferior ML and physically inferior NO. Can't get better than that from her perspective.
LM really knows what she can and can't do. Not so sure about CYF. Bit too passive and making LM chase corners, which is something she'll happily do even when fast asleep
One thing I would add regarding player's withdrawals, walkovers, Injuries or career choices is that may be it would be easier for the fans if their favourite athletes were more communicative. But again I find the badminton press/web presence non existent or almost. Players don't really have a platform to give feedbacks regarding their latest performances or career choice. Only the BWF YouTube channel provides few interviews or mini reports which is already great. When I started the sport I was looking for badminton magazines in the shelves of my newspaper shop. Never found any. Same for a website with information and feedback of the athletes post-match. That's how I stumbled on the BC forum which is one of the few sources of information available in the badminton world. Some of it is speculation, although some users manage to gather informations here and there and translate it for everyone.
I also thought Nozomi's well-known running ability and retrieving prowess is back and she's also able to attack well.