I don't know why Misaki/Kaneko has to play in Qualified round, and then when the main draw (1/32) was out, Watanabe/Higashino will meet their Unisys teammates, at the first round. So that, if Misaki/Kaneko was beat, their position in team A will be threatened, in contrast, Wata-Higa would not if they missed out this tournament. That is the case that I think. Some Vietnamese who were living in Japan, they played badminton at the weekend and met Watanabe on court. They asked to take autograph from Watanabe and took video from this. I watched it yesterday in a Vietnam badminton group. I am not sure that the video was taken from yesterday or two/three days ago or further, but in my opinion, It's not so long. In the video, Watanabe was fun and has no sign of injured. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I found the video You can watch the video here, It was recorded in 24-12
Kaneko/Matsutomo had to start from qualification because they are not even in the top 16 of the domestic ranking. Top 8 get automatic placements in the main draw. 9-16 start from the qualification rounds. Kaneko/Matsutomo are only qualified for this tournament due to the recommendation of the association. Players who qualify due to recommendations start from qualification. Their low ranking is due to them missing out on last year's All Japan Championship, and also due to their lack of good international results. This is a valid theory; however, we should taking into consideration the fact that Watanabe and Higashino had been withdrawing themselves from international tournaments for the past few months. Higashino has been participating in the ongoing S/J League matches so we know that there's nothing wrong with her, so there's a good chance that something is up with Watanabe's condition. Also, this is a title that all Japanese players want to win, so I don't think that they would withdraw just for the sake of their teammates. Kaneko/Matsutomo can still remain on Team A next year due to the NBA's recommendation. I'm sure the coaches would take into account their world ranking and who they lost to when making the decision if the two pairs were to duke it out. Edit: I thought that it is strange that Kaneko/Matsutomo are not even in the top 16 so I looked into it a bit more. Kaneko is ranked #5 with Nakanishi Kie, whom he was paired with prior to Matsutomo's conversion to XD in 2020. Unfortunately, the ranking only counts results from 2022, 2021, and 2019. Since they only played together domestically in 2020 at the AJC, their result did not count for the domestic ranking at all. From the domestic ranking perspective, Kaneko's most recent XD partner is Nakanishi, and the Kaneko/Matsutomo pairing is unranked.
We are in the case that Watanabe may need a little more time to recover. Yes, they can play and win, but It can be risk to go to final match. And they (or thier managers) decided to withdraw. There are Malaysia Open tour 1000 and India Open tour 750 ahead of them. Actually I have a little worry that whether player in team A like Yamaguchi, Nishimoto, Momota, Naraoka, Okuhara,... didn't have a long rest before a new and tough schedule ahead of them.
