Kamura/Watanabe won't have enough power smash. Watanabe isn't as a back-court player as Sonoda is. He is in mixed double. And he is pretty creative with his shots. Maybe JPN was hoping he could pull out some ZN.
I agree. This Sonoda Watanabe pairing is the best they could come up with. The question is whether Kaneko and Inoue can beat the World Champs.
@Master Absolutely love how you are making this sound! Classic strategy vs Tweaked strategy - I hope PJB really has 1 or 2 things up his sleeve with that. But then again even if it is 2 - 2, Super Dan is gonna absolutely smash it. In a normal match without the stakes and responsibility then yes Tsuneyama might give him a tough time. But not in this kind of condition.
Li/Liu are both hard smashers...the counter to which is fast/creative net play a la KSS or LYD. It seems with Watanabe/Higashino it was the latter who was usually calling the shots to her partner.
Japan team expects 2014 result repetition when they crushed China directly with 3-0, last two matches MD2 & MS3 will favour to China.
Yes, that's exactly what JPN hoping he could do, be creative with his shots whether it is from the back or at the front. And I have seen him pulled out some really creative defenses or net plays pretty nicely (with different partner of course). Endo isn't really a front court player as he never was in his partnership with Hayakawa. I kind of believe that Watanabe is the back court player in this Endo/Watanabe pairing simply because he is the younger one and have stronger stamina to do hard work from the back.
Don"t write off Japan completely! The seemingly impossible may turn out the opposite! Then at least we get to see all matches being played!
Watanabe plays a very good controlling game. We just don’t see him at the net too much in the XD because he can’t overcommit to the front court too much because he also has to cover the back court. This should play out rather similar to the ZSW/FHF pairing we saw at the MAS Open last year.
Seeing how Inoue/Kaneko lost their SF against Astrop/Rasmussen it is quite risky to put them up against Liu/Zhang. Bold move by the JPN. I hope Liu/Zhang (Liu Cheng in particular) are up to it.
I think none underestimate Japan They have high ambition to make double joy here. It will be entertaining and close final contest
No one is writing them off We are just weighing the possibilities. At least I want MD1, MD2 and MS3 to CHN
Inoue and Kaneko are 1-0 h2h vs Liu/Zhang. So is Nishimoto vs Shi. And Momota extinguished Chen Long a month ago.
@yuquall Did you compare the game of Ginting from their last two matches and the one in Thomas Cup? For some reason, Ginting was nowhere near his speed of the last two matches. He was not even smashing like he did. I reckon he got burnt playing LCW since they both play the same speed game. You should never match LCW in speed. Not even when you are a Ginting. While Momota's confidence should be solid now after he managed to beat Axelsen. This match meant a lot to him. It is yet another confirmation to Momota that he is right at the top. Of course, one cannot definitely write off Chen Long. For some reason now I wish the Sonoda/Watanabe pair was the one playing against Zhang/Liu. I don't have much belief in Kaneko right now. And yeah, Shi Yuqi and Nishimoto. Nishimoto needs to believe that he can do it. Because he can do it.
As I understand it, CL is normally not his own during the TC finals, which he fumbled before. So the first point for China is as good as lost. With the leader down for the first match, it will not go down too well with morale. So China's MD1 will find it difficult to hold the fort. On the other hand Japan's head coach, PJB, Olympics doubles specialist, will have something up his sleeve to enable his charges to prevail over their China opponents. This team competition will be a crowning glory for PJB who has been coaching Japan for a relatively long time (?) and he already saw the seeds of his efforts blossomed with Japan winning the Uber Cup here. Japan's WDs have improved by leaps and bounds under his tutelage. If Japan's MDs prevailed against China's, then old man LD can continue to rest on the sidelines.
Exactly! Zhang Nan will be OK but Liu Cheng....that's the weak point to hit. And the day's rest has given Japan to work out and practice routines to hit this tactical area.
One interesting thing is Japan have 3 left handed player that will play the first 4 matches while all the Chinese players are right handed except Lin. Its just not nice when you dont often play against leftie, and we can say that when LD plays too. There are many X factor. Like ZSW loss in AE/Lu Kai loss in SC where they are heavy favorites. so who knows?
