"Retriever" has a very negative connotation. It implies that the player chases the shuttle around the court and can just barely get it back. Calling a player a retriever is just a lazy way to dismiss his/her other abilities without making efforts to recognize his/her strong points. Anyways, here's an interview with Morten Frost in which he talked about AY. The interview is in Danish, translated to Japanese, from which I had translated to English below. I was debating whether to share it because I was too lazy to do the translation, but I think now is a good time. Let's see what else Morten thinks AY can do on court beside just having good speed and quick reaction. Q: If you were to pick a player whose play is fun to watch, who would you pick? A: There are many choices because there are many good players. Starting from the female players, the obvious choices can be limited, but for me, I think Akane Yamaguchi is a very interesting player. A very fun player to watch. Compared to other top players, she's not steady, but her play when she is in good form is very interesting. Yamaguchi has the ability to do many things. When necessary, she can run and cover the court. She also has wonderful skills and can attack. She can approach a match from various angles. Her net play is also wonderful. She can play the net very well, gaining points from it. When she is in good form, she can vary her game. She can also change her play style during a match. It is very interesting to see. Q: I see, then how can players like her be more stable in her play? A: I think her concentration is simply missing. I think sometimes Yamaguchi loses her concentration. Many mistakes creep in when she's too relaxed or when she's not at 100%.
Allow me to emphasize, nowhere did @Ballschubser or myself say or imply Akane is just or mostly a retriever, that all she does is retrieve and nothing else is she good at - that is manifestly and commonsensically or simply not true. How can that be when she is a world-class player, in fact a top exponent consistently ranked in the top 5? I'd rate her top 2 now. Read Morten Frost's interview , after saying "Yamaguchi has the ability to do many things.", note that the first ability he mentioned is none other than "When necessary, she can run and cover the court. " In other words, that's what defines Akane , that awesome retrieving ability is what stands her out from the rest, ceteris paribus (all else being equal). No doubt, every single player can retrieve shots thrown at them but none does it to the level she's capable of. Fantastic. That's not to downplay her other skills, attack and net play as pointed out by Morten, unequivocally. Let me sum up why I nicknamed Akane, The Super Retriever, absolutely no mean feat, utterly no negative connotation, on the contrary. Mind you , that very special, truly exceptional ability , the likes of which I've never seen in women's singles is mind-blowing, almost out of this world, and, I add, by no means can it be easily copied or acquired by anyone in the women's circuit, nay, in history. The one and only other equivalent I can think of is her male counterpart, Chen Long, whose defensive ability, yes, retrieving ability, coupled with counterattacking skill when the opponent's attacks peter off, much more than his outright attacks, is what enabled him to wrest three major titles from The Mighty Lee CW, who admitted in resignation, and I paraphrase, no matter what I threw at him, it kept coming back; I'd done my very best, he's just too good; and suchlike. Precisely, it's Akane's superb retrieving ability that repeatedly stumps, frustrates, tests her opponents to the limit, to throw up their hands in despair (figuratively), looking lost, confused, defeated, even driven insane (OK, I exaggerated this one) that then allows her to attack at the opportune moment to finish off the rally if the opponent had not made an error, forced or unforced. Yes, this uniquely Akane's special 'weapon', indeed, it's like an armour without chinks, an impenetrable shield, an impregnable fortress that can withstand any and virtually all attacks which often allows her to launch the counterattack when and where she chooses to finish off her opponents, stunning them into submission. Terrific. All right, if you dislike the epithet 'Retriever' despite the adjective 'Super' before it, then , fine, come up with another moniker, if you wish. (Makes me wonder if Marcus/Kevin mind being called, The Minions.)
She is like a F-1 car. Not the most comfortable or Stable but Bullet-esque in getting to the corners and back.
I never said any of you said she's a retriever and nothing else, but at least one of you is emphasizing that word over and over and made many points about how she plays a mostly retrieving game when some of us begs to differ and tried to point out otherwise. My point is that the word is not as much of a compliment as some of you might think it is, so it is doing her a disservice by labeling or categorizing her as so. I appreciate you expanding beyond her 'retrieving' ability, but my posts were not addressed to you in the first place so I don't know why you're getting so worked up about it .
Allow me to repost it here from the French Open tournament thread:- " Against The Super Retriever, Akane Yamaguchi, your attacks had better be intense and accurate as to overwhelm her more often than not , or you might as well be playing against the wall. Regardless what you throw at her, smashes, drop shots, punch clears, tight net shots, fast drives, soft shots and trick shots, they had better find their mark or you are done for time and again. Fascinating to watch how Akane bamboozles her opponents every now and then." And I add, Akane seems to be peaking these few months, if only she had done so a bit earlier during the Tokyo Olympics, I'd have no doubt she would be the one on the winner's podium wearing the gold medal around her neck.
Congratulations to Yamaguchi for winning the Denmark Open and the French Open back to back despite the hectic schedule of the past 6 weeks. Those deceptive forehand cross-court drop shots worked very well against ASY and resulted in quite a few outright winners. Some of them very Watanabe-esque! She deserves a very good rest, and hopefully, no news of injuries in 2 weeks time!
For me, Akane is like the female Kento Momota in term of style. She doesn't have the strongest attack, but the general basic game is consistent and very high quality. She scores by supercharging the pace while maintaining high quality shots. Recently I am impressed by her smash improvement.
Congratulations to Yamaguchi on her World Championship title! She was a heavy favorite coming into the 2019 edition, but had it ruined for her due to a back injury. Despite the lackluster draws in other disciplines this year, the WS draw was still strong, so I think it's fair to say that she has earned her victory, overcoming the fast rising ASY and the always formidable TTY on the way. Hopefully, the Japanese mass media will give her the recognition that she deserves now. To celebrate her win, I had translated her post-match interview as reported by Badminton Spirit below. Hint: it is as low key as her victory celebration . -Your candid impression of the win There were many matches in the three months before this competition. There were good times and bad times, but I am happy that I was able to win this last tournament. -What were your thoughts at the moment of victory? Of course, I felt happy, but the last half of these three months had felt very long, so in all honesty, I felt that it has finally ended. It was this year's last tournament so I'm glad that I was able to end it with a win. The opponent was also very strong. Especially in the second game, I kept my concentration no matter how far apart the scores were and played with the tension. I felt very relieved. -What went well in the first game I think that I was able to draw the mistakes out of the opponent by taking her shots with perseverance and not giving her the chance to win a point easily. -Your impression of Tai Tzu Ying's play Obviously, she is a very strong player with very good skills and rally ability, but she hasn't played in any match since the Olympics, so when it comes to the game intuition, I think I was able to play with more confidence. -How are you going to celebrate your victory after this? I want to return to Japan and relax so it would be good if we can return to Japan without incidents.
Interesting videos by Saishunkan featuring Akane, Shida and Nami. With english subtitles... so considerate of them..
Part 2 has just been released! Yamaguchi is hilarious. Her on-court and off-court gap is like night and day!
Thanks for the part 2. Akane's hair, funniest part. Seriously she should show up on court with that hair.
It gets pretty close whenever she rubbed her hair with the towel though. Too bad the hair falls back to normal once she started playing again .
I overslept my 5 AM alarm and woke up just in time for the WS medal ceremony to see Yamaguchi standing at the top of the podium -- what a relief! I've been waiting since the 2018 Final against TTY for her to clinch the AE title, and she finally delivered, on the tail of a World Championship title, no less! We got a smile and a thumb up for the WC title, now a smile for the AE title. What would she give us for an Olympics title? Hopefully we'll get to find out in two years . Morten started out the World Tour commentary calling AY a retriever at the 2018 AE, but finished up his World Tour commentary at the 2022 AE recognizing that AY's technical and tactical skills make her more than just that. Glad to see him update his assessment to give her the recognition that she deserves!
She won 3 consecutive Germen Open and fatigued in All England in 2017-2018-2019 (2020 and 2021 Germen Open was cancelled) In 2022, she quitted Germen Open soon to determined to take All England.
