Well done Li Shifeng beating the Spaniard Penalver. I thought he would lose as it looked like his game hasn't matured. Pity there isn't a replay for us to see how he overcame the really fast and furious opponent. His next opponent Koki Watanabe will be a test of how good China's coaching has been. Two talented juniors who will have many more battles in the future. Koki is playing very well beating P.Kashyap, seeded 6. Koki has abundant experience and is surely favoured to win. But LS has surprised me twice., now. Interesting
I think Runze Yan was a former China junior. He together with Qin Jinjing are now playing for New Zealand. They are into the quarter finals . RY beat Zhang Weiyi in two games.
CBA is really serious at last. There are 9 junior MS playing in the Osaka International on 3rd April. These are the top post junior age players. In effect they are the 2nd national MS team. Noticeably, Sun Faixiang isn't in the tournament. All the best juniors are there , but not Indonesia, Malaysia and India. Thailand's K. Vitidsarn isn't taking part as well. A really good testing ground for them. Cant wait to see them in action. I wonder when will the juniors who took part in Europe etc are going to be in action.
Other juniors like LS, KV, Nhat Nguyen will participate in Polish International. That has a strong MS draw.
Other than Lakshya Sen and Kunlavut Vitidsarn, both up-and-coming youngsters, good that you mentioned Nhat Nguyen, the Viet-born Irish player, he's caught my attention, watch out for him too.
In the North Harbour tournament Nguyen Tien Minh the top seed is in the final . He will play Gao Zhengze , the 19 year old from China.NTM has already eliminated two Chinese juniors, Tang Kaifeng and Gu Junfeng. TK played quite well and has a strong smash but made too many mistakes, forced and unforced. You can't do that with someone like TMN, who was once top 10 in the world. GJF just capitulated against the master veteran like all the other opponents. Its interesting to have GZZ play TMN in the final because only a tricky and strong attacking player will have a chance against him. GZZ is such a player but has he got the confidence and skill to bring out his best game tomorrow. Highly unlikely as TMN will wear his opponent down. But GZZ did play very well against Runze Yan who is quite a good player. GZZ has a strong smash and is quite fast too. Best of luck GZZ.
I found out that Li Shifeng is 1.8m tall and weighs 80kg Great to know CBA is sending their 2nd and 3rd tier players, including their juniors, to all sorts of BWF low-tier tournaments regularly nowadays. Such a policy change can only do a lot of good for the growth and development of Chinese badminton, I believe it will bear fruit very soon. The recent election of Zhang Jun and Xia Xuanze as the president and vice-president of CBA in top management signals a new chapter in Chinese badminton as apparently they are making some sweeping changes to the system.
It's great that in China, accomplished sportspersons can also become efficient sports bureaucrats. If only , this system was adopted in India, we could have seen wonders.
I am sorry but I am afraid I don't think much of Li Shifeng. He is not a natural . He is another work horse that is good at placing the shuttle to various parts of the court . He lacks speed, anticipation and deception. He doesn't have many "gears", i.e. a one pace player. Easily read by much better players. I am looking to the juniors on show now to produce a few talented MS soon.
Li Shifeng didn't impress me in G1 until the latter half of G2 which made me changed my opinion of him, the potential is there. Not too bad, actually, in a number of rallies, Li Shifeng, if he has improved stamina (probably he's tired playing his 7th match today as opposed to his opponent's 5th), he has the speed and shot-making to handle Koki Watanabe. LSF saving so many points from 10-19 in G2, including 4 matchpoints (the last shot he smashed wide) showed he has the game and ability to match KW, in my opinion. Koki's game somehow reminds me of his compatriots, Kenta Nishimoto, Kanta Tsuneyama and even Kento Momota's, particularly the ability to keep going with a high degree of consistency and accuracy. I daresay, a fresher Li Shifeng has at least a fighting chance against Koki Watanabe. Let's see his future progress and next meetings.
Gao Zhengze lost in straight games to Nguyen Tien Minh, but he led a couple of times which I doubt anyone of NTM opponents did. GZZ showed he has the game to beat NTM if he can up his level by one or two degrees. But thats going to require changes to his tactics which includes not smashing into the net so often. They might meet again in the Waikato tournament next week. Chen Yufei took 12 matches to beat Tai Tzu Ying, lets hope GZZ will take less. He is definitely a player to watch for the future.
Gao Zhengze in losing to Nguyen Tien Minh is in good company. Many top players including Kento Momoto , Son Wan Ho, Anthony Ginting ,Jonathan Christie and Chou then Chen to name a few, have been defeated by this master of retrieval. Only Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei and Taufik Hidayat have beaten him many times but they have also tasted defeat. But Kenta Tsuneyama has not lost to him the 2 times they met and in straight games! This was in 2015 and 2016. So a little bit of video watching in time for their next meeting is called for.
Lu Guangzu outclassed in the 2nd set. Another player with no gears. Its all one speed and easily read by Kanta Tsuneyama. It was a little embarrassing to watch how he was wrong footed so many times. He is beginning to look like Du Pengyu I am afraid. I notice Zhang Jun was at the sidelines to see how bad Chinas back up MS has lost to Japans. Well done Japan.
Pathetic performance by Chinas Md. Zhao Haodong was very timid and didn't have a clue what to do. Talk about a "goldmine" for the opposition. Poor Han Chengkai having to create shots and in doing so makes many errors as well. How did they rise so high in the rankngs? Han should get a new partner,imho. They will never go far if one partner is not a natural doubles player.
Congratulations is due to China beating Japan. I didn't give them a chance as I expected Japan to win the first two matches, unexpectedly they lost the XD. And their Women lost !! MD and MS of the China team performed abominably. Zhang Jun should be daring and demand that the under performing MD should be given a warning and even have their partnerships changed. The Indonesians have a habit of mixing their doubles to see whether new pairings can be found. I still think that Chinas MD are not aggressive enough. The Malaysians and Taiwanese seem to produce very good doubles players and noticeably they are very strong attackers. Granted you need good tactics and defence as well. As usual just my 2 cents worth hoping to see new talents from the China camp.
Replay Han Yue vs Sayaka. Good quality vid. https://video.h5.weibo.cn/1034:4353444837052956/4353451443927290
