Kento Momota (new thread)

And mistakes as well. Prime Momota would not make mistakes well rarely. This one though...

Sometimes I wish he would focus solely on defense. I remember back in 2018 he would play purely defensive but all the way. He even mentioned it - mamoru - the word he used I think. Meaning he'd protect his side of the court.

I wish he could bring this back for a start. But maybe he can no longer read his opponents like you said. Hence this style is impossible for him now.

We can see glimpse of his former level sometimes. But it stays as glimpse and nothing more

 

I think his defence on game 2 yesterday and the first 2 set in denmark final is as good as before injury. The difference is the consistency, unforce error, score points from smash and sometimes he dont know what to do like 3rd set with Shi ,Viktor and LZJ after interval. We rarely see his smash to straight line or deadly cross smash. He need improve the angle and playing style should change like what he did to surprised LZJ in game 2.

 

Let's face it, he's lost his 2018 mojo & may never return to such form again.

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This may be but who knoes what happened. I still see some some hope from game 2 yesterday. I thinks he need many matches to reshape his tactic, confident, anticipation and to familiar with other player's top form.

 

We'll see. As far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty sure he's not the same player after the accident/CoVid. His basics are still strong thus he could rectify his playing style.

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I honestly think it is his mental. Look the dude gets intimidated easily. Looks up when he makes mistakes. The body language is translating his mental state.

He needs to have a rage for victory. If he doesn't have that then it is over for him.

 

See this is what I respectfully don’t agree. I’d rather think or hope it’s something fixable/improbable via better training, better in-game strategizing and etc. That seems a more solid path than, say, a sports psychologist.

Momota’s performance is not that different from TZY, or the minions who face challenges from both old rivals and the new generation. Ginting and Jonathan scored less than 40 points in TOTAL in their 1/4 final defeats. I don’t think all these can be solved by turning on a mental switch.

 

But you'd think/assume that they are already doint what needs to be done for the physical / strategy training though.

Although that second part of game three showed how they were weak on strategy side as well.

 

In 2018 he attended many small tours before big game to build mental, physical, anticipation and strategy. Now I thinks he lacks that kind of experience. He needs many matches with big gun to rebuild his data how they are playing and how much they improved since 2020. All of his data to use for anticipation are currently stop at 2020 and small parts of 2021. People improved a lot since then. Thats why he cant predict where their shot place and lost confident.

 

I think this is completely wrong, sorry. MS is in an absolute state at the moment, due to Covid, long breaks, no tournaments, many people retiring/pausing (CL, SWH, JOJ, SYQ, a bit earlier LCW and LD) and the best player by far being way off for the biggest part of two years.

Who has improved in your opinion? Ginting is a shadow of his former self, has won f... all since 2020. JC is JC, meaning he's talented and that's it. Antonsen? Has he gotten better? LZJ? Never performs outside of Birmingham, has been irrelevant for all major tournaments, no titles, not even finals, and that despite scarce competition. CL? SYQ? Improved? I mean, we have no capable Chinese MS at the moment. KS might look better now, but you can ask the Indian fans on here if they regard him as anywhere near his prime.
CTC? Was never a title winner and has looked like age has been catching up with him for some time now.

And VA? Has won the majority of tournaments, mostly against hapless competition and was labeled "untouchable", "Axelsen 2.0", whatever. Didn't look like a much improved uber player in the Denmark Open final to me, or at the World's.

This leaves us with two 20 year old youngster, who have two low tier titles between them and LKY.
LKY is the only one where I would say "ok, he's an improved senior player". Where was he at AE again?

The bottom line is: We desperately need LS and KV to develop more quickly than might be good for them, because without these two mere boys, the competition is so stale. That's how incredibly weak the MS category is at the moment.

As for Momota. He's reached the final of Denmark Open --> got injured straight after in Paris, he came back and won Indonesia 750 comfortably against AA ---> got injured again the following week and couldn't play WTF or WC. This March set of tournaments is yet again, comeback for him. His performance here has been a major disappointment, I'm not going to lie. However, the idea that MS is on a "new level" somehow and that he can't keep up because everyone and their moms have reached another tier, is just silly, imo.

 

Maybe i dont make it ckear enough. I means that other players improved their stamina, mental, consistency and game play compare to 2020. I dont mean MS reach another level but they improved themselves to be able to challenge and come close momota 2020.

 

Ok, but who are the players you mean?

 

Honestly it could juz be an off day. Sure, its obvious he has not completely recovered is 2019 form but if you look back at Bali, where he won the indonesian masters, he was able to beat Sen, Chou tien chien and antonsen. So, we know he is still able to beat top players (CTC and antonsen) and upcoming ones like Sen. I think he is juz inconsistent.

 

I think about 6 below:
- Viktor: he improves his stamina & mental.
- LZJ: he impoves gameplay vs momota, matches vs momota from last year is different from last time they played in Malaysia.
- LKY: as you mentioned.
- Sen: he improved a lot this year but I think he can create tough game for momota only because his smash is as same as Momota.
- Kunlavut: same opinion as Sen.
- Brian Yang: looks promising but not at Kento's level now.


Other players:
- Ginting: always tough player for Kento but his performance is dropping now.
- Antonsen: in good day he can beat Kento but he lacks stamina and mental.
- JC: not special gameplay.
- CTC: good player but unfortunately he is old now.
- WTW: good player but lacks stamina/consistency.
- SYQ: bad injury prevented hin to grow more.

 

I used to watch their full matches repetitively just because of their quality & consistency of shots. No offense to the current crop of players, though.

China Open semifinal in 2015 is one of my favourites amongst other great outings between these two but the best is the 2011 WC Final.

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Accident? Sure. Covid? That’s pure speculation without evidence. Momota is not the only badminton player who has contracted Covid.

 

Curiously, I can't see Momota in the draws of the upcoming Swiss or Korean Open.

 

Of coz it could be possible. But it really is a hypothesis that doesn’t have much supporting data (other than the drop of his playing level, which as this thread shows, theories are abundant). Obviously, this is internet and everyone is free to speculate…