He probably knows what he needs to do to regain his form but isn't doing anything about it. Sure, Team A is not signed up for lower grade tournaments, and maybe NTT East probably doesn't want him participating at their expense, blah blah... Seems to me he's just going with the flow hoping to miraculously regain his form by randomly participating in big tournaments while pulling out of others, going on sabbaticals, taking breaks, etc. At some point he's going to have to play more to win more.
If mods can revive Kento Momotas old, long lost thread, then maybe he will play like what he used to do
STOP IT with the whole racket thing. A racket is not going to make or break you, not at this level. And BTW, this is from the German Open 2023 where he is using the "77 Pro." I have the 77 Pro and the EB Cap Plus cone does not look like this.
It's already been somewhat established that his 77pro is a repainted 99pro. A racket definitely does not make or break you but I wonder if it's just a confidence/mojo thing. I play golf nowadays and there's certain clubs when I Iook down on it or swing it gives me good vibes or memories that I've hit it well in the past. There's some that I don't like the look of/looks funny in my eyes and gives me less confidence in hitting it well.
I don’t care about any cone speculations. Those are clearly the colors of Astrox 77 not 99. That’s all the evidence I need.
Well, the 77 with the string pattern of the 99.. the colours is not an evidence of the racket model as it could be repaint easily Envoyé de mon SM-S918B en utilisant Tapatalk
I have a hard time imagining a possible world in which a player would choose the colors of another well known racquet that he is not actually playing with IN A SITUATION IN WHICH HE IS ACTUALLY USING THE RACQUET THAT HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE PROMOTING FOR SALE. The only possible reason for such deception would be trying to promote some specific racquet that the player has started to feel uncomfortable with (I can imagine him using astrox 77 and painting it as 99, impossible for it to be the other way around). I can, however, imagine someone tweaking a racquet to familiar string patterns and cone.
You can imagine modifying the string pattern and cone but not a repaint which is way easier to do? Did Momota stated that he was uncomfortable with the 99 pro?
Yes Yonex has a very difficult time placing a cone or string pattern into a racquet. The whole company must have been falling apart because Momota told them to give a different string pattern to a racquet.
I would expect him to go for Badminton Asia. Anything preventing him from going to Swiss Open or Madrid Masters?
Probably the same reason most of the top players skipped those two tournaments..not sure if its the right choice in momota’s case though