I hope Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) v Jung Kyung Eun/Shin Seung Chan (KOR) won't last 2 hours!
China overall is doing well so far as there are 4 previous gold medalist surviving i.e Lin Dan, Li Xuerui, Fu Haifeng, and Yu Yang.
MY BOLD GOLD MEDAL PREDICTION MS LCW CL LD WS WYH LXR MARIN MD FU/NAN TWK/GVS HW/CB WD YU/TANG JUNG/SHIN MM/AT XD CPS/GLY TA/LN XU/MA
From the Intanon Ratchanok - Akane Yamaguchi replay, I sense that IR, like TTY, is very eager to win but as the match wears on and the pressure builds up, she appears to lose a bit of her touch and not as sharp as she can be. Akane, otoh, just simply goes with the flow, giving her all freely and it's turning up well for her. Well, no doubt about it, pretty tough for IR to carry the nation's hopes on her shoulders, with all those talk, publicity and huge rewards waiting for her to deliver.
what about CTC's chances against LCW? CTC underwent underground training with Tago for before olympic. He's pretty fit (very obvious, his arm size) and yesterday match against Huyun was one sided. CTC is a humble lad and very amicable i must say. LCW is tapping finger while waiting for his turn...i hope LCW can simply turn on his attacking mode without thinking to much....or over analyzing CTC.
A lot of surprises in the doubles. 1. Luo sisters were selected. 2. The reigning Olympic and World Champion in Women's Doubles, TQ/ZYL, were not selected. 3. Ahsan/Setiawen couldn't make it to the knock-out rounds. 4. LYD/YYS were eliminated. 5. ZN/ZYL who had dominated XD for 6 years couldn't make it to the final.
Thai's version of LCW...too heavy for her. she met thai PM and hit shuttle with PM, heavy media attention, sometimes seems like a political tool...hmmmm.....
Very well summarised. The saddest of all those must be LYD - still not a single MD major title. Interestingly, he's only 27 years old still, and can aim for Tokyo 2020, along with the several World Champs available until then. Also possible Asian Games Gold in a couple of years I think. But he's fast becoming (if not already) the "most prominent player in any human competition in human history to never win a major title in his main discipline".
Both IR and TTY were making more errors than they should which uplifted and emboldened their respective opponents to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Even trying to play safe at some point in order to cut down the errors didn't work for either of them.
My favourite Okuhara must be so hopeful at this point - she's never lost to her compatriot! In fact, she's never even dropped a set to her in official competition! Does anyone know who she would face in the semis if she wins?
By the way, I just watched bits of the XD semi-final between favourites ZN/ZYL and Tontowi - my goodness, but I've never ever seen ZN or ZYL look so disappointed. Usually they are all smiles even after they lose semi-major tournaments like All England, especially if it's against another China pair. This one hurt badly. Is it because it's their last Olympics?
For me, Zhang Nan has only himself to blame, Zhao Yunlei was realistic enough to agree to pull out of the WD except she should've done it much earlier so CHN has time to work on another pair stronger the the Luo twins. The fact is, since ZN took up double duty, he has never won both XD and MD titles in the same tournament nor in the finals for both event,if I'm not wrong. Instead we saw him struggling most of the time, even his XD performance was affected, worse when ZYL was also doing double duty, and, to compound matters, both the couple were for a period of time nursing some injury problems as there were little time for the two to rest and recover as they had to continually chase OG qualification ranking points.
What if Chai Biao/Hong Wei win this Olympic? Strange things do happen in this Olympic, who would have thought the british pair to be in the semi.
they might even lose their bronze medal match to their compatriot ... after the disappointing game ... :X
I actually think any of the last four pairs can win it, including the British. Just one of those things. MD is a bit of a roll of the dice at the moment.
Now I'm concerned Zhang Nan doesn't let Fu Haifeng down as the GBR MD pair Ellis/Langridge is on a high, rising to the occasion and playing above themselves.
Oh dear. Well, I guess it would be a chance at redemption for WYH if she makes the final against LXR. If she loses to LXR again, I'd hate to see her face - I've never seen a more disappointed face in my life when she lost last time.
Depends on whether he can sleep well after failing XD. He has to play 3 matches in , like, 24 hours. GBR MD should fancy their chances if they get the tactics right.
