It's obvious CBA's intention in enrolling Han/Zhou in as many tournaments as possible remaining is to enable the pair to earn ranking points as quickly as possible to get into the top 8 so as to avoid meeting the top pairs and their fellow teammates in the early rounds. Also with Zhang Nan/Liu Cheng appearing shaky of late, it's necessary to have another MD pair high in world ranking to shore up their CHN MD. I won't rule out CBA splitting Zhang Nan and Liu Cheng, it may be on the cards.
Lu Guangzu managed to beat IZ of Malaysia. Iskander Zulkanian is a tough cookie. SY took 3 sets to beat him last year in their last meeting.. Maybe IZ is past his best but he is still only 27 years. He is a very good attacking player and doesn't give up easily. Well done LG.
Its great that we can see the juniors performing in two tournaments. They are performing well except for Zhang Yiman. Even the MS have done well so far. Z.Junpeng beating Sony is a good achievement. ZZ is also playing better. The surprise must surely be Ji Shuting beating the 2nd seed M. Mitani . Thats a really good win. In Germany Sun Faixiang beating Nhat Nguyen is quite a good result too, because NN is quite a good attacking player. Pity we can't see any replays. Coming up later will be the juniors , Ren Pengbo against 6th seeded Lucas Corvee and Sun Fixing against the 3rd seeded Mark Caljouw. Lets see how they perform.
Ren Pengbo plays so differently than at the youth olympics where he was so casual. He didn't show his true capabilities then. Today against Lucas Corvee he was very fast and effective , creating many problems for his opponent. He is an exciting player and has a tremendous smash, so rare in the Chinese camp. Certainly a talent in the junior camp.
It puzzled me too what you wrote of Ren Pengbo at the FISU World University Games (not the Youth Olympics won by Li Shifeng) as I didn't get to see that match except the final where he bested the TPE player for gold. If I'm not wrong, Ren Pengbo is the one singled out by Sony Dwi Kuncoro once for special praise as one of the up-and-coming youngsters from China after losing to him in one of the tournaments (can't recall which one).
Sorry, you are right it was at the Fisu Badminton tournament. Ren Pengbo lost so easily to Adulrach Namkul, and China lost to Thailand in the final. He was so casual in that match as if he wasn't interested to win. But against LC today he didn't allow his opponent to get any chance to score. Quite a different player. I remember seeing him as a junior and thought he was very talented, but at Fisu he was disappointing. Anyway I am glad I was wrong about him. He is certainly better than Sun Feixiang who hasn't improve by much since his WJC days.
But Z.Zeqi is still standing having taken out the no 1 seed!! A surprise indeed. But he has improved by cutting down his unforced errors and injected surprisingly good manoeuvres. He has slowed his pace which used to cause many unforced errors. Now he is early to the shuttle but nicely balanced to place his shots away from his opponent.. His net play is confident and efficient. What a transformation; he was just hitting the shuttle before, like what S.Feixiang is now doing, i.e. without penetrating the opponents defence. Its quite an achievement to be one set down to WWKi and win in 3 games. Well done ZZ.
What a talented player R. Pengbo is. He doesn't play at all like the other juniors. He has an attacking game and uses it very well. He has many "gears" so to speak. And his changes of speed are instantaneous. Coupled with this he anticipates the returns very well. He pounces on the returns with speed and surprises the opponents time and again. The opponent is under pressure from the start with delicate drops and fast pushes . R.P and Lu Guangzu are the two most talented juniors imho, followed by Li Shifeng quite "far behind".
Lu Guangzu mishandled the crucial two matchpoints, then at deuce he simply cracked giving away two easy points to hand the match to Lee Hyun Il who is much more experienced, calm and focused. I hope this defeat serves as a useful lesson for Lu Guangzu and stand him in good stead in future. Well, the master stroke player, Lee Hyun Il, taught him how to think on his feet. I give LGZ credit for pushing the living legend hard to the every end in a battle of wills and wits.
Zhou Zeqi ousted Ng Kah Long , the top seed (not Wong Wing Ki), a commendable performance. Two more rounds to go, Lu Chia Hung tomorrow, and, assuming he cleared the hurdle, finally Lee Hyun Il, probably, and let's see if he can do better than Lu Guangzu against the granddaddy of badminton.
When Ren Pengbo lost G2 narrowly, 19-21, looking tired - after all, he's playing the third week in a row coming from the World University Games where he led Team CHN to silver in the team event and won gold himself in the individual event - I thought he would lose G3 as well. To his credit, in the decider, he kept fighting and pacing himself patiently without giving away too many easy points and was able to exert himself at the right moment now and then to finish Lucas Claerbout off for a place in the semifinals. But, I'm afraid he is up against Subankhar Dey tomorrow, who appears fit and fast in attack and defense and is on a high after overcoming Lin Dan. Additionally, unlike Ren Pengbo, he doesn't look the least bit fatigued and he came to the SaarLorLux tournament fresh.
Yes, S Dey is a better version of A. Namkul so RP will be facing a really tough opponent. But I like his pouncing ability, his speed and anticipation. He plays a different style from most players. It will be an ineresting match.
I will stick my head out and say after watching the two matches, Ren Pengbo is the best junior in the Chinese Camp. He has power, deception,speed and a good defence. He also has great anticipation and is ready to "pounce" when he is right.
RP looks to me like male version of Sung Ji Hyun, who has the ability to deceive the opponent with his body language and once the game starts, he will keep on going forever. RP will do better but need to have a good coaching bench to give him positive energy.
At the Macau Open'18 semifinals today, Han Yue in G1 was attacking too much and often prematurely, most of her smashes are either returned and sometimes with interest or went out. Besides, she was more error-prone than Cheung Ngan Yi despite winning the set with deuce. In G2 ,Han Yue switched to playing more lifts and fast clears and that allowed CNY to seize the initiative anticipating her clears and attacked more putting HY on the defensive. At the same time, it was CNY's turn to be more error-prone but still managed to equalize winning the deuces eventually to force the decider. In G3, HY started with a better mix of shots, with smashes , clears and some nets, but, soon, CNY inexplicably lost her script, crumbled and handed the match to HY with a lopsided score of 21-7. In my opinion, HY's inexperience showed, her overall accuracy and consistency wanting, ample room for improvement but she has potential. At age 18, born 18 Nov 1999, she has time on her side. CHN WS has added another up-and-coming youngster. On the whole, it bodes well for CHN WS to have so many prospective young talents, all 21 years old and under. Offhand, I count at least 6 or 7, namely, He Bingjiao, Chen Yufei, Gao Fangjie, Cai Yanyan, Chen Xiaoxin, Wang Zhiyi, Zhou Meng, and now Han Yue and , perhaps, Ji Shuting and Zhang Yiman. What if most of them make a breakout together or one by one within the next one to two years ?!
Also at the Macau Open'18 semifinals, Zhou Zeqi prevailed over Lu Chia Hung, thanks to his unhurried, quick-thinking game of defending and returning as many of LCH's attacks and challenging the net play without making too many mistakes as well as counterattacking at the right moment. It showed that Zhou Zeqi is a patient, thinking player but he could use a bigger smash as it is more like a placement shot oftentimes. Next, in the final, he is up against none other than the legendary Lee Hyun Il, a masterstroke player who despite his 'advanced age' of 38 is still a force to be reckoned with for any of the players ranked outside top 15/20, he can be quite a handful for those young, relatively inexperienced players who tend to rely a bit too much on speed and power to make up for any lack in technical skills, understandably. Like I said yesterday, esp after knowing how he saw off the 23-year-old Thammasin Sitthikom earlier today, I should think Lee Hyun Il has a significant edge over Zhou Zeqi, 17 years his junior at age 21.
What a pleasant surprise. I must say I thought ZZ didn't have a chance against LCH. Does anyone know where I can see a replay of that match? I agree it would be difficult against LHI. He is far too deceptive and has the power game as well. Anyway best of luck ZZ.
