Upsets,upsets, and more upsets. Zhang Nan's MD match with Kim/Kim, a long,protracted,intense struggle must have taken a toll in him in the XD, the price to pay for doing double duty. I believe this will be the last time CBA allowed anyone to do that. Now, he'd better recover as much as possible for the MD semifinals, to be fair to Fu Haifeng. In WS, three of the fittest players, namely, Saina, the fittest of the lot imo, Intanon R, and Tai TY, all of whom showed fine form prior to the Olympics are one by one ousted by unfancied opponents. So full of surprises indeed. It seems Nozomi is looking strong here. For the fancied ones, it's more a matter of how they handle pressure, for the wannabes or underdogs, they simply let themselves go, nothing to lose, nothing to fear, how nice.
What are we seeing here? Is that for real (but tournamentsoftware didn't have any update)? The video showed 2016 XD final had been played!
this should be the group stages match ... unless you wandered into a time warp vortex portal blackhole version of youtube. If thats true.. i am heading straight to the betting sites
Ah, you're right... Things happened so fast, and I didn't pay enough attention to the group stage; that they already played each other once.
Watching the replay of Tai TY - Sindhu. TTY was so tense and nervous , esp in G2, that she mishit a number of shots that could've turn the match around for her. What to do, that's the Olympics, once in four years ,and it has to happen that way. Guess, some athletes just do well for the Olympics and practically nothing else, the more so when the stakes are so high they are made for life if they come home with a gold.
Sindhu played exceptionally well for a tall player. She took every shuttle and kept the pressure over Tai. Whenever opportunity arises, she simply pounded on her. Simply superb and clean display by Sindhu. Tai do not even know what to do at some point. She simply ran out of ideas . Sindhu did well in World Championships as well . She did get 2 bronzes. Superseries are nothing. Just you can earn ranking points. True talents can be seen in OIympics and World championships.
I consider the following surprises/upsets for yesterday: MS Srikanth KIDAMBI [9] [IND] - [DEN] Jan O JORGENSEN [5] 21-19 21-19 0:44 MD Marcus ELLIS [GBR] Chris LANGRIDGE [GBR] - [JPN] Hiroyuki ENDO [JPN] Kenichi HAYAKAWA 21-19 21-17 1:05 Greatest Upset: MD V Shem GOH [MAS] Wee Kiong TAN [MAS] - [KOR] LEE Yong Dae [1] [KOR] YOO Yeon Seong 17-21 21-18 21-19 1:28
WS PUSARLA V. Sindhu [9] [IND] - [TPE] TAI Tzu Ying [8] 21-13 21-15 MS Rajiv OUSEPH [13] [GBR] - [INA] Tommy SUGIARTO [7] 21-13 14-21 21-16 1:06 WS Akane YAMAGUCHI [10] [JPN] - [THA] Ratchanok INTANON [4] 21-19 21-16 0:47 XD Tontowi AHMAD [3] [INA] Liliyana NATSIR [INA] - [CHN] ZHANG Nan [1] [CHN] ZHAO Yunlei 21-16 21-15 XD Peng Soon CHAN [MAS] Liu Ying GOH [MAS] - [CHN] XU Chen [CHN] MA Jin 21-12 21-19 0:47
Check page 56, another post said it was actually because of the grueling match Zhang Nan just went thru in MD department. I wonder if Xu Chen also played MD as Chan/Goh won the match in two easy straight games.
Xu Chen confused with Chan Peng Soon's serve. How can a player with a serve like that play in the Olympics Semi Final.
India hopes and dreams! On paper PV Sindhu vs Yihan Wang 50 : 50 Srikanth Kidambi vs Lin Dan 10 : 90 Sindhu and Srikanth can take heart from the performance of Malaysia's MD and XD for beating top teams! If we went by H-H both Sindhu and Srikanth should have lost their R16 matches. There is no denying that Yihan and Lin Dan have great mental strength and vast experience. Sindhu has shown she has big match temperament at the Uber Cups and World Championships. She can defy the odds and beat Yihan. But yes, Sindhu is highly inconsistent and mentally vulnerable as Srikanth Kidambi. While Lin Dan has lost few matches he can be beaten. Sindhu and Srikanth will require fairytale performances to make the semis. In 4 years, Sindhu will be formidable as would Srikanth but they have to be bold and play fearless badminton now. Indian badminton dreams of 2 medals!
The CHN XD pair losses in the SFs are the 2nd biggest upset in this Oly, just right after the KOR MD falls. Plus many more surprises (upsets) in various disciplines, though smaller in magnitude, as Loh already listed. Oly truly carries a lot of surprises!
U didn't see so many times, xunchen smashes and malaysia return cross court beautifully? Those not defence ?
since the 90s when I first started watching badminton with Ricky/Rexy, Cheah/Yap, Malaysia have always have the best effortless defense. Rexy will smash as hard as he can but it always somehow comes back. there might be some pairing which lack it but mostly, the defense from MAS players have been the most calm and natural and have the most choice variations. and as far as i can tell, I have never seen it in Chinese players. they always look so forced, not natural.
