Venue : Hong Kong Coliseum, Kowloon-HKG SAR, China Total prize money : US$350,000 Tournament information : http://www.hkbadmintonassn.org.hk/en...hong-kong-open HKG time : http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wt...ma=Find%20Time Order of Play (01.00pm & 06.30pm local time, 1 court) => http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/s...C97B56-47EC-4612-9850-455FB7F5DA5B&d=20141122 The semifinal day will be splitted by two sessions, afternoon and evening. A step closer to final curtain and we'll looking forward for some top-notch action tomorrow. MS, two mouth-watering encounters at stake. Chen Long v Srikanth, the on-fire Indian has been boosted by his sensational triumph at last week CHN Open SSP and let's see whether he can beat two top Chinese MS in two weeks. Son Wan Ho v Jorgensen, this gonna be gruelling match between the resilient Korean and explosive Danish player. WS, the surprising Okuhara still continues good run and will oppose recent WC Carolina Marin. The other half, CHN last hopeful Liu Xin gets tough foe, Tai Tzu Ying who disposed one of tournament contender Saina Nehwal yesterday. MD, strong fave Ahsan/Setiawan has bright prospect to redeem their first round exit last week to perform well in HKG. Japanese #2 Kamura/Sonoda who played excellently here will be challenged by former AE winner, Liu XL/Qiu ZH WD, another Japanese pair for INA WD, they must have strong stamina to overcome world #1 Matsutomo/Takahashi whom they beat at Incheon AG Final. Will they succeed? One of CHN WD will wait them in last round. XD, defending champion is surrounded by three Chinese pairs. It's hard task for the English couple to topple ZZ, they did it last year at exactly same stage here, what a coincidence! LIVE TV matches (01.00pm) : - Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) v Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (ENG) - Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) v Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii (INA) - Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) v Carolina Marin (ESP) - Chen Long (CHN) v K. Srikanth (IND) - Mads Conrad Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding (DEN) v Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA)
Me too, I like their attitude and the way they play, very dynamic. I saw them live in round 2 and it was quite nice
SK's big weakness seems to be defense. I heard Morten Frost mention this briefly a couple of times with GC during the China Open finals against Lin Dan. At that time it sounded more deliberate, like what GC and Morten typically say (favoring a bigger star/jaundiced views etc). But watch the CTC/SK and WN/SK games in this tournament and it becomes so apparent. SK's defense doesn't seem to be in the same league as other Top 10 players, particularly when he is being smashed at on his backhand. I suspect this will be a big part of his development over the next 6 months. You need a lot of great practice players to build this skillset, there is no shortcut. LD was very tentative in engaging that higher gear when that is exactly what could have undone SK during crucial times. His reluctance to smash, especially to backhand was very LCW like. It is like they don't want to engage that higher 6th gear for the fear that it may not be enough and they will end up beating themselves. I think Chen Long is going to exploit SK's weak backhand smash returns. If he doesn't he will get added to SK's victim list fast.
It's a fair assessment you have made. He does lacks good defense. And he also very error prone. But IMO his defense is good enough to be top 15 but not top 3. I think LD was taken aback by SK's game, maybe he was not expecting SK to play like that. LD certainly tried attacking but SK was returning LD's smash with a cross-court drop there by blunting LD's attack. And SK was attacking so much that LD left defending most of the time and he never got enough chances for himself to attack SK. It was SK's day. LD was out of ideas because he did not prepare well especially for SK. Knee injury was least of LD's concerns that day. It was more about underestimating his opponent.
To be honest, Chen Long isn't that difficult to beat, he's vulnerable at times and beatable other than on his day,esp when facing LCW. This year alone he's lost to the likes of K Tago, JOJ, M Zwiebler. Hope Chen Long's leg as mentioned by GC and his pinky which he grazed don't bother him at all.
Agreed. SK has developed a lot during the last few months and now players will come up with game plans for him. To sustain his new found surge, he needs to a) Develop his defense to Top 10 standards over the next 6 months and Top 5 over the next year b) Eliminate the adrenaline rush follow-up smashes to net c) Eliminate cross court smashes that are going wide from the moment it touches his racket.
Lin Dan never underestimates any opponent. I remember in one interview pre-LOG'12 where he said it's inadvisable to take any opponent for granted, even dangerous to do so, esp for the unfamiliar and unknown ones. It's not a fair and realistic analysis of that match without taking into account Lin Dan was recovering from the knee injury, his worst in 14 years as he said, which also affected his training; that's also why he pulled out of the HK Open that followed to fly back to Beijing for further treatment and a good rest. For the CHN Open he's expressed amazement, so did some sport commentators in CHN, that he could advanced to the final. That said, it's basically a good analysis, particularly the part on KS. Admittedly, KS is a very promising player, still improving, definitely a top 10 player already. In my opinion, he has surpassed Kashyap who I thought highly of, that's saying a lot of KS.
Such a pity for the GER Fuchs/Schoettler yesterday, narrowly beaten by the JPN. For disposing of Lee/Yoo, they deserved an appearance in the final at least.
I hope Hendra/Ahsan, Greysia/Nitya can delivers today, hehe... As for other matches, I wish all the best for them hopefully they can play their best. As for Women Singles, it is a rare occasion when no top player from CHN at last four. I notice Japanese gals lately doing so well, they have quite many good players. Envy, hehe. GO INDONESIA GO!!
In MS, apart from K Srikanth, Chou TC also deserves special mention. Atm, these two are the in-form ones showing lots of potential and outshining K Momota, K Tago, V Axelsen and a couple others.
Justin, have Zhao Yunlei and Zhang Nan married already or still just engaged? I forgot but feel like I've read it somewhere. Wondering if you knew the true.
Should KS beat Chen Long today, I'd expect his momentum to carry forward tomorrow and take the title irrespective who awaits him there. It'll be reminiscent of CTC's excellent form winning back-to-back tournaments. The question is for how long more, and how consistent can he be in the future.