WC is like the Olympics, where low ranked players are invited early on in the rounds and who would have been ineligible to play in top tier tour tournaments, as a result you get crap players that seeded players defeat easily. It's only when you get to the QF that you see good matches.
its very hard to do that because they are 2nd in SS MS below Denmark (whom is all won by Axe anyway). They won 2 titles this year not bad by any standard. The draw is unfortunate meeting VA that often. Might even won1-2 more SS had Ginting didnt meet VA 4x in a row. He prolly needs some luck by hoping someone beat VA or at least not meet VA in QuarterFinal. The new rankings will be interesting at the end of the year. I wonder if Ginting will be top 4? He is pretty consistent with
Minions lost in yet another WC ? not surprised... Honestly herry ip should just split them up, they can't even win world tour titles these days and that's the only tournament they're good at
In 2017, for sure, he won the WC and the SS finals in Dubai. In 2018 and 2019, probably, but he was blocked by Momota. Viktor has always had a bad H2H against Momota, like Momota was Viktor's kryptonite. I know Viktor trashed Momota recently, but Momota is a shell of his former self. Don't forget that Viktor has weak spots, such as the last WC, when LKW beat Viktor. So all it takes is a 2021 WC form LKY, or a 2018/2019 Momota, to beat the current Viktor.
Still, i always think that being Independent help him a lot and its supposed to be that way. Living in Dubai, he gets the advantage that Asian players have but with European strength. No more long travels , no more jet lags. Denmark is super faraway. Thats why like in football, its difficult for those far flung province teams to win the title (for example Napoli).
Anyways, this is Viktor's tournament to lose now. His biggest threats, LZJ and LKY, are out. I can't see the remaining players being a major threats to Viktor. If Viktor sticks to his level of play, he should beat CTC and he should also beat whoever comes out of the other side of the bracket.
Momota has always got the better of Viktor before the accident in 2020. In WC17, Momota was absent as he did not have enough points to qualify, after having his ranking wipe off due to a long ban by NBA in 2016, just months before Rio16. I'm not implying that Momota will win WC17 if he had played. It really depends on your performance that week, else we can just give the award based on ranking. When LD did not participate in WC14, everyone thought LCW will finally get his gold. We know what happened in the end.
In 2017, chen long had better winning percent than vik and kidam had the same number of ss titles like him (3) Compare to 2 years lately. He's above anyone in titles and in winning percent
Only second half was stellar. In the first half he lost to both Emil Holst and Wong Wing Ki Vincent. I understand your argument that VA was in his prime in second half of 2017. But he was not in 2018-2019. Not because he could not beat KM, but because of all the other players he lost to in that period. Players that he now consistently beat: Christie, Ginting, Lee Cheuk Yiu, Chou, Zhao Jun Peng, Kanta Tsuneyama, Shi Yuqi, Kidambi. I would also argue that he is stronger now than in WC 2017, both physically and mentally. So we got a (well-timed) peek of his prime in 2017, followed by a bad period in 2018-2019 (partly due to injuries), and then he bounced back to his prime in the beginning of 2021 at the 2 x Thailand Open and has stayed there since and also improved.
Is it fair to say that Axelsen reign is 2017-2022? how is he in 2018 and 19 because i never remembered him being out of top 8. He is still there and thereabout. And we are talking about Momota who feel of the cliff , not even top 8 in current rankings and i cant ever remember Viktor feel off like that. he was never dominant but so neither LYD/JJS which people put above Minions for example lol. For me Axelsen and Minions are the same. They are 3rd ranked, not enough to push the top 2 yet and in Axelsen case even with WC and OG.
They played well, and the fact that the HK pair made a lot of unforced errors too. Mark Lamfuss has very steep smashes, caught the HK pair a couple of times out
I would say JC...leading with 5 points but still could not close it out. LZJ just did not implement right tactics