Despite winning there is something wrong with Watanabe, his smash had lost all power overnight. Just yesterday he was hitting smash winners at all, maybe few too many for his skinny body. In this condition they have no chance against Chinese. In my opinion Malaysians did not play very smart today, they should have been closer to net as there was no smash threat.
Yeah, he`ll probably get a new partner after Tokyo. Let`s hope, there is somebody good availabe. Although I like Higashino, have to say, she has to up her defensive skills. I wouldn`t consider Watanabe a worse mixed player than Zheng Siwei. But the Chinese just has a woman by his side, that is just miles above all other mixed doubles women at the moment. That?s why they dominate.
Despite being a huge fan of him, I never felt that he was good at smashing with power. They are steep and his hang time in the air is ridiculous and his disguised drops are probably the best on tour for XD category but no, his smashes are not on the level of ZSW or even Dechapol. Yesterday against the Adcocks, he looked like a beast due to their non existent defence. I like Endo too but I think he's holding Watanabe back.
KM's deep backhand corner (his RHS) is not a weakness, LZJ should avoid always playing to that corner but mixed it up
On the contrary, he's finally learned to manage his rhythm & use the right amt of energy on the right tactics -- Jeremy Gan has been trying to get him to go for more variations, MORE variations & MORE VARIATIONS since Day 1.... Today's match is weirdly amazing because even the commentators can't tell why or when Watanabe will suddenly go fast & slow -- which is the hardest thing to do as an athlete because you train so hard to get muscle memory, but must remember to break muscle memory to watch for & surprise your opponents.... Zheng Siwei was ''bad'' like Watanabe when he started & couldn't stop himself from repeating the same shots & mistakes.
Too bad for LZJ, he is simply too inexperienced in the big stage. There was so much unforced errors and simple mistakes. That is one thing that he need to keep in mind for the next few years.
Goh/Tan and Chan/Goh should just retire. No point on playing if they want to win G1, and boil off for the next two. Really bad discipline.
KM is very much a front court player, drops shots, nets, and to the opponent's two front corners, at the same time he covers his deep backhand corner (his right-hand side) so well that he can often get behind the shuttle to play the shots he thought best to put pressure on the opponent (straight down-the-line or cross-court smashes/drop shots).
Indeed, it's a pity to me that Lee didn't play like the way he played today on yesterday. ^-^ Then Nishimoto will won the third game easily.
Kenta Nishimoto is different from Kento Momota, Kento Momota is now like god mode, having the absolute levels of Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei...