The one who surprisingly doing well here is Wahyu/Ade. I suppose they have improved a lot in their performance. It's been shown in yesterday's against Goh/Tan and today's match against Ahsan/Hendra. Fajar/Rian should be cautious.
QUARTERFINAL | 10.00am => https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...9735B1-3F77-4524-854E-9B06E10D1527&d=20190726 *MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - Kento Momota (JPN) v Anthony S.Ginting (INA) - Jonatan Christie (INA) v Anders Antonsen (DEN) - Tai Tzu Ying (TPE) v Michelle Li (CAN) - Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND) v Akane Yamaguchi (JPN) - Gideon/Sukamuljo (INA) v Aaron Chia/Soh WY (MAS) - Li JH/Liu YC (CHN) v Endo/Watanabe (JPN) - Ko SH/Shin BC (KOR) v Ahsan/Setiawan (INA) - Matsutomo/Takahashi (JPN) v Du Y/Li YH (CHN) - Polii/Rahayu (INA) v Kim SY/Kong HY (KOR) - Puavaranukroh/Taerattanachai (THA) v Jordan/Oktavianti (INA) - Chan PS/Goh LY (MAS) v Watanabe/Higashino (JPN) Denmark and Indonesia record positive result in men's singles quarters, securing three spots each. Jan O Jorgensen continues his mojo to create late comeback that ruins his rival plot, Chou had healthy lead in first and deciding game but never write-off Jorgensen as former European Champion seizes momentum successfully, 3-12 to 21-19 and dejavu 15-19 to 21-19, what a thrilling yet entertaining encounter. Jorgensen will take on his junior Rasmus Gemke for a place in semifinal. A delayed much anticipated showdown between Kento Momota versus Anthony Ginting will set up tomorrow as both of them were slated to face off last week but unfortunately crashed out simultaneously at second round. Momota begins to show better performance to outmaneuver Kantaphon Wangcharoen, his usual strategy worked well, patient style, accurate placement, tight netshots really frustrating his younger opponent. Meanwhile Anthony Ginting taking longer time at court, a lethargic start before outlasts Sitthikom Thammasin who ran out steam in deciding game. Another possible intriguing clash will also involving Indonesian leading man Jonatan Christie who takes on Danish number two Anders Antonsen. It goes by the book for women's singles line-up, no major upset happens. The off-form 6th seed He Bing Jiao repeats her second round exit, this time by Nitchaon Jindapol who scores first ever win of six attempts. Aya Ohori still has not find the answer yet to overcome Pusarla Sindhu, the tall Indian will up against Akane Yamaguchi, replay of INA Open final five days ago. World number one Tai Tzu Ying, 2015 winner Nozomi Okuhara and reigning All England Champion Chen Yu Fei are favoured to cruise into last four. The Minions eliminates local combo Hoki/Kobayashi who deliver credible threat in second game and face Malaysian rising stars next, Aaron Chia/Soh WY who dismiss Chinese prospects Han CK/Zhou HD in a see-saw battle, riveting clash. 2014 World Champs Ko SH/Shin BC deny all INA affairs, disposing Alfian/Ardianto to set up a meeting with the rejuvenated Ahsan/Setiawan, the latter edge past Nayaka/Santoso in close rubber games. Home representatives, Endo/Hayakawa have Chinese hurdles Li JH/Liu YC, rematch of Sudirman Cup final. Second seed Kamura/Sonoda on bottom half will find Indian tests Rankireddy/Shetty. A repeated duel will pit Polii/Rahayu versus Kim SY/Kong HY, the Koreans won their INA Open meet in very tiring match. Powerful home women's doubles squad have assured one semifinal berth. Matsutomo/Takahashi, Fukushima/Hirota facing China rivals, Du Y/Li YH and Li WM/Zheng Y respectively. China number one pair Chen QC/Jia YF indicate declining mode after produced strong showing in All England, MAS Open and Asian Championships. Who can trouble the Chinese? Both top-two seededs have smooth passage so far, Zheng/Huang will be challenged by Faizal/Widjaja, a tall order for INA pair against the lethal duo. World number two Wang/Huang have German fighters Lamsfuss/Herttrich to progress. The remaining two ties are more drawing attention to follow, local favourites Watanabe/Higashino will oppose Chan PS/Goh LY whilst Thai aces Puavaranukroh/Taerattanachai meet Jordan/Oktavianti. LIVE TV COVERAGE - COURT 1
FFS, court 3 - I can't believe this ****. And absolute garbage like ****ing Jörgensen vs Gemke on #2.
the AE is basically an Olympic Ticket when AhsanHendra won it. Do realised that AE title can change the mentality of many players. AhsanHendra has been consistent since then. When Minions won AE, it was their 4th SS. now they already 21 SS. It has much bigger impact than WC , imo.
I just realise that there is no semi-final round with 4 players/pairs in the same country. The draw was arranged to not let it happen.
Daihatsu Yonex Japan Open 2019 Day 3, 26/07/2019 Another day has passed, the weather was not as nasty as yesterday in terms of humidity. Still I took my time to get to the Arena lol because my ticket was a reserved seat, not necessary for me to come earlier to reserve a "better" seat. The station was quiet in the morning (10 am ish) and bright. About 5 minutes walk you will reach the hall with stands selling tournament merchandises along the way to the entrance. If you purchased premium seat or arena seat ticket, you will get a program book (only in Japanese I think) with articles and pictures about the latest Badminton and the players information (rankings, etc) in all categories with Momota (MS), Okuhara (WS), minions (MD), Matsu/Naga (WD) and Zheng/Huang (XD) as the cover players of each category. Had mine signed by Zhang Nan on the cover yesterday (left) At the corridors outside the arena entrance, they have a little exhibition of History of Badminton and display four of the oldest rackets in the world. All wooden ones. Now, to the main event. I was not quite happy with my seat location. My seat was located at the furthest back of the hall, behind court 3. Not having a good sight of Court 2 and especially Court 4 was out of question. But fortunately, I had some of the players I came to see allocated to court 3 (TTY, Wang/Huang, minions to name a few). Not really an enjoyable day for me personally, felt too long and I was easily drained today, but it kind of paid off in the end. Started at 10 am finished at 8:30 pm. It was a long day. I am sure everyone had better time enjoying the matches on Court 1 and court 2 (with Steen and Gill guiding you along) than me so I will only mention the matches mostly on court 3 and some that left some impressions on me. Polii/Rahayu : Didn't remember much about this as I arrived late and half my attention went to Kam/Son match and trying to ignore my next neighbor's body and balloon block. But looked like Polii/Rahayu had everything under control or I thought so at that time. Ginting vs Thammasin : A frustrating performance by Ginting in G1. Once he got the game going in G2 he was unstoppable in G3. The opponent had nothing left by then. Not sure how he will do tomorrow against Momota. Matsu/Naga vs Chow/Lee : On paper, Matsu/Naga was supposed to win this easily. But the MAS pair gave quite a fight. With Matsumoto's not so good day, errors were inevitable. They won the match not without struggle. Rankireddy/Shetty vs Huang/Liu : The IND pair had no idea how to handle the CHN pair in G1. LC was powerful with his attacks and did well with Huang to keep the pressure on the Ranki/Shetty. IND pair bounced back strongly in G2 and should have won G3 quite comfortably if they did not falter and rushed after quite a big lead in G3. Well a win is a win so they are through to QF. TTY vs GMT : TTY was in control G1. GMT showed some resistance in first half of G2 while TTY showing a bit hesitance in responding. After mid interval, TTY back to business and GMT couldn't handle TTY and was forced to make errors. Many fanatic TTY fans and I don't know whey they had to sit in group in the supposed-to-be-empty- seats front of me. Anyway it was funny how TTY fans were shouting and trying to compete on how much they love TTY ("TTY I love you" "TTY, I love you too" "TTY, I love you the most" etc) and then TTY got embarrassed and smiled wryly before she went off to the backstage Adorable TTY when she is not on court. Wang/Huang vs RUS : No comment needed haha except that looks like Wang has been having this occurring back injury since last year. Probably that's the reason of their absence in many S500 tournaments this year. Wang was visibly touching and massaging his back as if he was in pain. I really want this pair to win more titles, but with Wang having back problems, I guess the main priority for them now is to be fit enough to qualify for Tokyo rather than winning titles (against their own teammates). RG vs HSP : HSP made quite a number of unforced errors and had trouble in attacking. RG had no problem whatsoever returning almost everything HSP threw at him. Clearly HSP should know what his problems are. RG played solidly and hardly made any mistake in contrast to the Indian player. FukuHiro vs DelPal : At first, Fuku/Hiro seemed to be struggling getting their attacks through the FRA pair. Fukushima in particular seemed to be at lost. Oh well, just gave her some time and they had won G2 without you knew it. Praveen/Oktav vs Chang/Ng : Maybe it was the opponent not so threatening or just their good day, "King of errors" pair didn't make any significant mistakes and we can guess what that could make them, a top XD pair Lamfuss/Heittrich vs Tabeling/Piek : Scoreline wise, the most exciting and thrilling match. 26-24, 27-29, 21-16. The score was neck to neck, none of the pair managed to pull away with more than 1 point lead. Amazing to know how many GP or MP saved in the match. If it weren't that minions match waiting after this, I might have enjoyed this match more lol. Minions vs Hoki/Koba : Two straight games affair. JPN pair had no answer to INA pair's total dominance in service situation. Hoki tried some mind game near the end of G1 but no avail (at first). G2, the JPN pair seemed to find the answer to get out of tight service situation and disrupted minions rhythm. JPN closing in after minions leading 4 points before minions sealed the match 21-19. Entertaining for the local crowds and heartbreaking at the same time. Ahsan/Hendra vs Wahyu/Ade : Tight and close games. More experienced pair made it through. Impressive performance by Wahyu/Ade this tournament despite losing this match. Ko/Shin vs Fajar/Rian : The most exciting match for me today. Fajar/Rian had the upper hand in G1 completely. Starting G2, the KOR pair stepped up and beginning to put Fajar/Rian under pressure by more aggressive attacking play. Throughout the game, they didn't drop any intensity and the INA pair started to falter and was forced to make errors. Even Fajar couldn't dominate at the net at all, just how good Ko/Shin on closing in with their fast exchanges. Shin was dominating the front and the rallies, and glad to see that Ko didn't disappoint his partner. In G3, Fajar/Rian still not able to get out of the pressure and Ko/Shin with renewed self confidence just kept on their relentless pressure and imposing their own presence really well. Fajar/Rian had to work really hard to score a point, as Ko/Shin's defense was pretty solid. Rian's service errors didn't help either though Ko's errors were pretty alarming at some points before they finally managed to put Fajar/Rian's fight to an end. Pretty much a good solid performance by Ko/Shin, almost as good as their form in AO. What's even better that I managed to have both Ko and Shin's signatures I told myself to prepare for this kind of thing after yesterday, yet I didn't bother to. BUT I am glad I came up with the idea of having them signed my ticket of today Yay yay. Ko's signature on the left, and Shin's on the right. They were really accommodating unlike some other top pairs (cough cough minions and Ahsan/Hendra, I meant you) All my hard work kinda paid off! Japan Open, banzai!!
I also have the same experience with Ko/Shin, I met them at Vietnam open last year and we took a photo together, their sponsor/coach (the apacs guy) helped taking the photo of us, he was friendly too
Country representatives in QF 10 - JPN 8 - INA 6 - CHN 3 - THA, IND, DEN 2 - MAS, KOR 1 - TPE, CAN, GER Seeded players left in QF MS - 3 WS - 5 MD - 5 WD - 5 XD - 7
Arrived a little late again. Seat located at 3rd floor this time. A bit further but at least I could see all the courts just fine. Everyone queued up earlier for better seats. I supposed I just have to raise and come much earlier tomorrow to get better view It's packed here. Summer holiday? Anyway, TTY doesn't seem to be doing great.
