China always have more resources and always will be number 1 in badminton despite it being not good enough now. ZSW/HYQ looks good and yeah to remove the perceptions of favouritism and jealousy i guess thats the best ( plus there are more tours next year, players can always make money there). Maybe to give the XD less pressure not being the number 1 seed in NanjingWC too such has been the dominance. First seed in MD also didnt do well.
http://sports.qq.com/a/20171114/039232.htm Sony Dwi Kuncoro after losing to Ren Pengbo in the qualifiers praised:" The potential of young CHN MS is huge." Sony in today's match with CHN MS Ren Pengbo was completely outplayed, even trailing 0-7 from the start of the opening set. At the post-match interview, Sony said:" I feel that the new generation of young CHN MS is actually very good. This is the first time I played Ren Pengbo, he is an excellent player, though speed-wise not that fast, but very strong."
Very gracious of Sony. Wouldn't it be a good idea to let him coach some of the Chinese juniors to learn how to add speed, deception and net play to their game!! An Indonesian Tang Sien Hu!!!
Finally a junior that has visibly improved and is quite talented, Ren Pengbo. Good attacking player with a few gears and a change of pace. A player to watch. He is unlike the usual defensive chinese players.
Another fast, aggressive hard-hitter in the mould of Wang Tzu Wei, Kanta Tsuneyama, etc. Nice to know Sony thinks so highly of him and of the young cohort of CHN MS, hope he's right about them.
It suddenly occurs to me that with LXR needing another year or so to make a possible successful comeback and Sun Yu having an injury layoff and may take some months to regain her form, CHN WS for the time being is relying on their 18-20 years old cohort in the early stage of their career, in a year's time when this bunch of promising and rising youngsters continue to improve steadily to their potential, they may very well have a huge impact on the women's singles scene. I have in mind not only He Bingjiao, Chen Yufei, Chen Xiaoxin but also Cai Yanyan, Zhang Yiman, Han Yue, Gao Fangjie, and one or two others. Bright prospects for CHN WS ahead, I think. We'll see. Edit: I want to add one more name to the list of CHN WS holding the future of CHN badminton, Ji Shuting, 19 years old, born 13th Feb 1998, who today in R2 of the China Open PSS bested Sung Ji Hyun in three tough sets going by the scoreline, 16-21,21-19,21-19. Well done.
After watching Ren Pengbo's matches yesterday and today against GuoKai and Son Wan Ho respectively, I agree he has good potential. At 20 years old, born 5th Jan 1997, RPB is still young, relatively inexperienced and played too few international tournaments, I hope CBA will give him ample opportunities to play and lots of exposure to gain experience. Son Wan Ho is a very solid player, always near the top but never the top, he is a tough proposition for practically everyone outside the top few. No disgrace for RPB to lose to him esp when in G2 he realized, probably with coaching advice, not to try and win by brute force but construct his rallies a bit more using different tactics and bide his time to attack as well as watch his defense.
Ren Pengbo has a glaring weakness which is he takes one set to get to his normal game. Against Wei Nan he also played badly in the first game. Its as if he needs to get a feel of his opponents style of play. I feel its due to his lack of international exposure If you watch his match against FA Kholik in April 2017 you can see the progress he has made. The WS has certainly made more progress than the MS. CYY , ZYiman and Ji Shuting are clear examples. They are exciting players. I don't know why the men can't include a new group of juniors. These WS are 18 and 19 year olds playing in a SS event!! You can't say that for the men. Why Why Why??? Other countries are having different teams playing in so many tournaments.
Chinese Juniors get a lot of precious experience here at their home soil. Good luck for them! Ji Shuting meet Akane Yamaguchi, Gao Fangjie meet PV Sindhu at QF, really another achievement so far. They reach QF at least.
I find that too often we have said this of new Chinese MS up-and-coming youngsters. Wang Zhengming to Tian Houwei to Shi Yuqi and so on. Plenty would arrive on the scene bursting with talent and screaming of "next Lin Dan potential". All this before going under the CBA cookie cutting mould and we end up with multitudes of Chen Long clones, playing the same boring textbook "safe" style with little variation or creativity. Too many raw talents must have had potentially gone to waste under this system, and it's no wonder why old guards like Cai Yun and Gong Weijie berate the mundane similarity of playing styles between these young players nowadays.
Gao Fangjie, What a performance against the world ranked no 2!! A flash in the Pan? Looking at the match a second time, admittedly P S contributed with a lot of unforced errors, but its GF great footwork speed and anticipation which was telling. She is always there and gave PD very little time to play her shots. In addition her smashes were accurate and her lengths were very good. She was so fast that the game ended very quickly. I saw her against A Ohori early this year and thought she was a good player then. She has polished up her overall game and she executes her shots very well . Interesting match tomorrow against CM. I feel she has a very good chance to win.
Very good chance to win for Gao Fangjie? I wish I'm as optimistic as you. For me, I tend to give a bit more weight to experience than youthful exuberance. Perhaps, GFJ has a fighting , she was impressive beating P V Sindhu, attacking and defending with good anticipation as if she read Sindhu's game inside out. I'm not sure if she and her coaches expected her to advance to the semis and may not have prepared her as well for her opponent whom they cannot have known in advance who it would be. Unless she is such a quick learner, super intelligent, that all she needs is to watch a couple of CM's latest videos and get a few pointers and general guidance from her coaches to come up with a game plan to deal Marin; otherwise,all I can say there is no substitute for experience, exactly what GFJ is short of to take on the much more experienced and decorated opponent. If GFJ can take a set off CM or push her hard tomorrow, that to me is creditable enough of her talent and potential to go far in her young career. On the other hand, I don't entirely rule out a big surprise or exception to the rule. Can't wait for it.
A good day for China's juniors. Firstly Gao fangjie.What a great performance todate. She is certainly the best WS player in China today. She has speed , a great variety of strokes, very good footwork, stamina and strength. Her game is so much more complete than many of the WS players on the circuit. She has great timing and because she is early to the shuttle she can be deceptive. I also notice she strikes the shuttle so cleanly, making crisp sounding shots. Aya Ohori is similar as well as N Okuhara. Shots struck with very good timing has a split second delay which causes the opponent to wait and their reaction is slower. AY will have a problem with her accuracy, speed and height. Akanes game is relient on speed and consistency which is not enough against GF. Secondly the Juniors playing in Korea. A great turnaround especially B.Yupeng beating K Vitidsarn, the WJ Champion, from Thailand. K.V. has been sweeping many junior titles and is very talented. Li Shifeng also beat the second seed from Thailand, R Oupthong, another talented junior. The juniors are finalists in MS, WS, MD and XD. Only the WD is not an all Chinese affair. Well done and congratulations. Pity there are no videos for us to see how they played.
So far Gao Fangjie has dealt with two fast attacking players, Sindhu and Marin, but tomorrow she is up against a top-notch defender and runner with a capable counterattack, can she adjust her game to handle her? It'll be another big test for the young, relatively inexperienced GFJ whose giant-killing feat is making waves. One final hurdle to overcome in tomorrow's final. All the best to her. Jiayou, Gao Fangjie !
Chinese players entered for Korean Masters. https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/players.aspx?id=60D86131-2252-40D1-8E31-A88F45ED65EC&c=CHN No Ji Shuting and Cai Yanyan. Lu Guangzu will be going. Hope he has fully recovered from whatever that caused him to withdraw from Macau open and Chinese SSP. Instead of Zhou Zeqi I rather prefer Gu Junfeng and Gao Zengze.
Whatever you want to say about CL's "boring" style, the man has won everything in the game. if you have the work ethic to back it up in order to build the necessary physique (You need it at an extremely high level like CL for it to work), it beats all these "fun" players like LCW, Axelsen and often even LD. However, I doubt these players you mentioned like Shi Yuqi are nearly as hardworking on their physique as CL. It isn't like CL is gifted either. Coming in as a junior to a senior, everyone said his problem was that he was slow and had no defence, now his speed and defence are his greatest strengths (And the things he is best at in the world), that takes hard work, and I don't see the same thing in these juniors
If every table tennis player plays like Ma Long table tennis will be very boring. Xu xin, a pen-holder, and Joo Sae Hyuk, a shake-hand chopper, provide us with varieties in the game. CL's style plays the same role for badminton and he has shown us that his style can win big titles too.
I am sorry to say this but I don't think Huang Yuxiang will ever get higher than his present ranking. Its far better to let him go as he just doesn't have the ability to become a great player. He has no control in attack or defence. Its all reflex action ending frequently in errors. Isn't it more exciting to see a new junior MS creating a little bit of excitement as in Gao Fangjie in the ladies? Watching the match today against K Phetpradab he shows no interest as if he is going through the motions, i.e. lets get it over with!!
Discussion about the future of Chinese WS involving Gao Fengjie,He Bingjiao, Chen Yufei and Li Xuerui. ~ Pretty girls ~
Bai Yupeng, the coaches favourite junior, was knocked out of the Korea Masters in round 2. He couldn't handle the tall Korean who is a doubles player as well!! BY played his usual C.Long type of game which was not tight enough and allowed the Korean to attack. At the last 5 games of the third set BY changed his strategy and started attacking and caught up, but it was a little too late. It seems like BY and the CL style of play cannot handle the quick returns that this korean and the Japanese like Kenta Tsuneyama and the others, especially LCW and S.Kidambi. Maybe the CBA should have a two prong strategy with half the juniors trained in CL style and the other half with an attacking style.
