Interestingly Tai just beat Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian last week. I think she would have better chance at Rio than Wang Shixian or Wang Yihan.
Rio will be much too early for her. She clearly represents the next generation after LXR, WSX and WYH and I hope that she will be built up slowly and carefully to peak at the next Olympics then. I'm pretty sure she will cause some more upsets like today in the current season though.
Yes, she may have beaten Tai who have beaten WSX and LXR last week, but she has not been tested in this big events (Uber/Sudirman/WC), let alone Olympics. It is a big risk for sending her. On the other hand, one can say it is a good investment for the future for China. Barring any major injury, HBJ will still be around for many years, and being selected to go to Olympics is definitely an excellent experience for her.
That's how it looks like. LXR can win gold but I don't believe in WSX. He Bingjiao has very recently beaten most top players but I think she's still inconsistent. She beat anyone and lose to anyone. In my opinion she would have better chance to win gold in Rio than WSX but WSX is almost guaranteed to get into quarterfinals at least and I understand CBA wants to play it safe.
I think so too. He Bingjiao is too young, just turned 19 ,is still relatively inexperienced, no big match experience, and only into her first year of her senior international career. If only she had started a few years ago, like some of her foreign peers, then it may not be far-fetched to consider her for a crack at the Rio Olympics. But, she is already beginning to outstrip her more established seniors, Wang YH, Wang SX and Sun Yu. However, fret not, time is on her side, that's the natural advantage of youth. Most importantly, she is hugely talented and possesses the requisite abilities, character, and attitude to reach the top one day, I believe. And how glad I am to see her fitness improved quite a bit, even so there's still room for improvement. JiaYou ! May You Become The Deng Yaping (table tennis legend and all-time great) of Badminton !
Heartiest congratulations to He Bingjiao for winning her maiden Superseries title, the Yonex Japan Open'16 Women's Singles Champion ! I believe we'll be seeing her mount the winner's rostrum quite often from now on.
So amazing to see her win the Japan Open today! Although a lot of the big guns were missing, she took the chance that was offered to her with all she had to give. Time will tell if she has what is needed to fill the huge void that WYH and WSX will leave. And is it just me or did she seem to be noticeably fitter than last time we've seen her? I was quite impressed about the speed that she was able to keep in the third game.
She is certainly fitter. Three sets against RI and SYu isnt easy. She was not panting and was just as fast in the third game. She needs a stronger and more effective smash to take on CM and the other strong smashers. Improving her fitness will allow her to take the shuttle early and make her returns more punishing. Lets see how she performs in Korea next week. Congratulations to her for her maiden SS title.
On this righty or lefty subject, I tend to agree with Tian Houwei who was once asked about it and he said there's actually no difference nor advantage in being a lefty. Just because there are so few lefties, the moment one or two southpaws shine in a predominantly righty environment, we think it's very special or unique. The fact is for every lefty , there are how many righties who are outstanding ? According to this 2014 article,http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/techno...ty-righty-here-astonishing-statistics-4757193, just 12% of the world's population are left-handed. Nevertheless, this claim is food for thought: Left handers make especially good baseball players, tennis players, swimmers, boxers and fencers. Almost 40% of the top tennis players are lefties, including Rafael Nadal who has won 14 grand slam titles. [If we consider badminton is a close cousin of tennis, there are several similarities, then perhaps there's some truth to it as applicable to badminton as well. As for the rest of the statistics, since the author didn't cite any sources to back his claims, except for those that are easily verifiable, I shan't comment. - Justin]
I just meant lefties like: Lin Dan, Marc Zweibler, Lee Hyun-il and He Bingjiao (Just to name a few) all have a similar aesthetic flowing and graceful movement and racket strokes that righties just don't.
I'd say righties like Li Xuerui, Intanon Ratchanok, Tai Tzu Ying, Lee Chong Wei, Boonsak Ponsana, just to name a few, do.
We get your point made in a subtle, nuanced manner. Indeed, it's a great honour for anyone to be mentioned in the same breath or be lumped together with THE GOAT, Lin Dan.
If you watch the mirror images of CL and LCW playing where will you place the two of them in the list above? Yesterday I placed my laptop in front of my dressing table and watched the HBJ/Sun Yu match in the mirror. I still found HBJ's game more attractive. Am I being biased?
He Bingjiao vis-a-vis Sun Yu is more creative, artistic, deceptive, and more skillful, on the whole, but not by much, albeit not insignificant. Sun Yu's advantage is in her height and reach - she's big and tall - which she's capitalizing on to attack, esp her strong, steep smash is a killer weapon now, and defend better in improved retrieving ability. As she is heavily built, comparatively speaking, she doesn't seem to move very fast though with big strides she can cover the court well enough. I'm thinking if she can be nimbler, that is lighter and faster, she'll be even stronger and become formidable. In terms of experience, Sun Yu being three years older and having played many more senior tournaments is one up for the time being. However, I strongly feel this is where both of them are still wanting. It takes time, there's simply no substitute for experience. There is still two years before the Asian Games in 2018, by then I should fully expect both of them to become reliable mainstays for CHN WS together with Li Xuerui. As for next year's world championships, let's see how far these two can rise to have a realistic shot at it, particularly He Bingjiao who is in the first year of her international career at the Superseries level (her junior days playing at the senior level don't count for very much as she was only allowed to compete occasionally at the BWF tier 3, GPG/GP level, unlike some of her peers).
