SEMIFINAL (10.00am) Man of moment, Kento Momota was troubled by Rasmus Gemke before nails semifinal berth. Credit to Gemke to penetrate his famous opponent with some fast attacking shots as the Japanese suddenly played carelessly when leading 16-10, 17-13 then losing 21-23, but no worries longer as Momota knew his second game blunder and back to normal at deciding game. Defending champion is favoured to pass surprising semifinalist Tommy Sugiarto. In all Danish affairs, it was Anders Antonsen blew away golden opportunity in opening game, 16-9 to let his senior Viktor Axelsen grabbed 7 straight points and sealed it 24-22, second game became one way traffic drastically, 21-12. A most anticipated clash between hometown boy Axelsen and the Olympic Champion Chen Long who continues his winning record against Chou Tien Chen, 21-17 / 21-17. Carolina Marin had deep problem to overcome future star An Se Young, the big talented Korean read well her opponent weakness, often pushing Marin into baseline as the Spaniard couldn't retrieve well from her backhand side. The rushing Marin also produced unforced error when she unleashed smash quickly. What a strong character that this teenager has to keep fighting till the end when Marin won narrowly, 18-21 / 21-19 / 21-18. Three-time World Champion will take on regural rival, Nozomi Okuhara to secure final ticket. On the opposite draw, an uphill task for Chen Yu Fei to topple dominant figure Tai Tzu Ying, a rematch of this year All England final, the only victory for Chen of 14 encounters. Barring any big upset, it will be all Indonesian finals once again. Title holders Gideon/Sukamuljo knock out Han CK/Zhou HD and facing Lu CY/Yang PH who shocked China number one Li JH/Liu YC. World Champions Ahsan/Setiawan will meet another Japanese foe, Kamura/Sonoda. Korean women's doubles pairs faltered one by one, two of them fell short to Japanese best combinations. Only Baek HN/Jung KE survive and will find formidable names Matsumoto/Nagahara. All England champions Chen QC/Jia YF beat Chang YN/Kim HR comfortably and have arch rivals Fukushima/Hirota to progress. Mixed doubles major upset was scored by Jordan/Oktavianti who beat the mighty Zheng/Huang for the first time in three games, 18-21 / 21-16/ 22-20. The Indonesians should be wary to TPE pair Wang CL/Cheng CY who stunned Tang CM/Tse YS. China hope to pick title here will banking on Wang/Huang but tough test await them today, Korean lefthanders Seo SJ/Chae YJ.
MS discipline is the most boring as of late, KM is just too dominant and consistent. I just hope VA & SYQ can get back to top form as soon as possible to make it worth while watching yet again.
If Praveen can cut his silly UE just by half, he will be challenging Zheng Siwei as the best male XD player of this generation. Too bad it only happens once in a blue moon, and for unknown reason, it did happen last night.
Probably an ultimatum that is given to them to reach the SF target. Praveen, in particular, has been scolded for being absent from training. With that ultimatum, they can't afford to go lazy.
Zheng/huang are always in trouble when they can't get the initiative and being forced to defend majority of the time, this is one of the reason why I think zhang/zhao still better than them.
Minions registered to play KoreaGPG, that will be 5 tournaments in 6 weeks.. While LiLiu will play 6 tournaments in 6 weeks.. Well the schedule..
I reckon because there is no more LD & LCW selling power. 1 player is dominant and the rest of the seeds is really inconsistent, so thats not good.
Iin or lee's matchs mostly worth watching even in early round against any player. But when boss is defensive player, it need good attacking opponent in his good day to make good match
Marin didn't even try to conserve her energy for the third game, and I bet she still can move really fast at the end of the third game..
