I am kinda surprised that there are thread for them yet. They are the upcoming women's double from Japan! As of June 14th 2018, they are ranked at 20 in the world, while winning 3 tournaments this year already (Swiss, Australian, and New Zealand). Although ranked at 20, they are only the 6th Japan's WD in current ranking. Saying that they could be a contender in Olympic is also kind of a reach as of now, but who knows if they are progressing so fast that they could catch up with the others at the top. I also believe that they just defeated TakaMatsu in an event last week in 2 straight sets.
It was actually the final of said team competition, with Unisys playing Yonex, so it wasn't a game Takamatsu would casually throw: The writing is on the wall for Takamatsu. The Olympics are still two years away and if they can't sort themselves out rapidly (especially AT with her fatal body language towards her partner), they simply won't be going. AT lost to Shida/Matsuyama the day before as well, this time with Higashino. As for Sakuramoto and Takahata: Great development for them, but it is only a minor surprise. The Japanese WDs are basically all better than their ranking suggest, as they don't get send to SS level tournaments unless they're in Team A and not to GP level tournaments, unless they're in Team B. Sakuramoto/Takahata have but one SS tournament to their name, the Japan Open. If you consider they'd be 5950 points in the plus if the New Zealand Open hadn't changed it's date considerably (technically they wouldn't, but they still had another GPG final well within a single year), they'd be #15 right now, with only 8 tournaments played and only one of those a SS. That's quite impressive. I think the NBA should be more flexible ahead of the Olympics and send players like these to SS level tournaments. You simply can't bank on Takamatsu (or Tanayone) being titles contenders in two years time, when they are already showing signs of decline.
Agree, I also am looking forward to seeing Shida/Matsuyama to be the "next" breakout WD with winning a tour (maybe Canada this week). PS: I find it unique that Japan's WD almost always consist of only 1 cute girl (at least in my eyes ) -- Shida, Takahata, Matsutomo, Fukushima, Yonemoto, and Maeda. I am going to hell with this comment. lol
I love Shida and Takahata. They're so cute!!! Wish Shida/Matsuyama will shine soon on badminton wolrd.
This pair is so fun to watch! Sakuramoto is a very creative player which I’d say is quite rare for back court players. I wouldn’t say the same of Jia Yifan or Ayaka Takahashi. She’s clearly the playmaker and reminds me a bit of Chang Ye Na (assuming she wasn’t tired) whenever she took the back court when she was paired with Lee So Hee who was the back court player. Sakuramoto can also hold her ground in the front court and the opposite also holds for Takahata at the back court (better smashes compared to Matsutomo). Hope they expand the JPN A team next year to include them too!
Yeah and Sayaka Takahashi as well the next day. I am not sure if maybe they just don't have the motivation to give maximum effort since they can already win a Super 500.
They can’t win every tournament they participate in, which was basically what they had been doing. They have won 5 tournaments this year?
I think they can reach #10 with a final at the Spain Masters, which is well within their capabilities. http://bwfworldtour.com/tournament/3145/spain-masters-2018/results/draw/wd Haris/Pradipta: 57470 Sakutaka: 52050 Runner-Up at Super 300 tournament: 5950 points They still only have 9 tournaments, so they'd get all the points they earn. This would make the half of the top 10 in WD Japanese, including #1, #2 and the world champions.
Yup. Reaching the final in Spain would be nice, even better if they beat the top seeded world champions. Furthermore, a good performance in Japan this September would solidify their presence in the top tier of WD. Hoping this Vietnam S100 is just a small bump on the road for them.
Sakuramoto/Takahata are now ghosts of their former selves. That Tong Yun Kai Cup final in Hong Kong was a good chance for them to assert dominance on the world stage again. Hope they find their excellent form soon, especially as they have Du/Li again in R1 of the Malaysia Open next week.
Dismal again, wasting 2 match points against Du/Li R1 of Malaysia Open. Honestly this "transition" from B Team to "sorta" A team is so weird. They can't defend any of their titles and lose R1 and so on in these high level tournaments. Slump in performance is similar to what happened to Kawakami last year. JPN coaching setup should find a way to handle this better imo.
Unless this pair can prove themselves by winning a major tournament, Tokyo will likely be a distant dream. However, transitioning to Mixed doubles may be a different story! If NBA can just pair them up with potential partners!
It has been since they weren't made official A team members after playing that season and beating TanaYone in straight games at the All Japan. I fear the development of the players not belonging to the A team is currently far from a priority, especially in women's doubles.
