I'd advise optimistic caution. While there have been quite a few highlights in their career (AE 17 and 18, Sudirman Cup 17), there have also been a whole lot of disappointments and early tournament exits. In terms of preconditions, they couldn't have been more "blessed": Went to the best badminton high school together, which means they have been a pair for quite some time, joined one of the few companies in Japan that actually have a women's and a men's team, and have been promoted by a top association from the get go. Despite all that, they only have won a single tournament, a challenger in 2016. They've reached the final of a GP tournament once (2015), nothing above it. Arisa is also turning 22 in three months, which isn't old by any means, but it also isn't exactly unpredictable youngster level anymore. To put it in perspective, she's a full year older than Chen Qingchen, for example. If you look at their ranking points and exclude the Sudirman Cup, they've come up with eight first round exits and two second round ones, nothing better than that. That is weak af, to be perfectly honest, and the reason they are currently ranked 48 in the world. Park Joo Bong is clearly putting the focus on Japan's by far weakest discipline now by hiring Jeremy Gan as a designated mixed coach, so there is still hope. I think it would be great if they could put their horsepower to the road after the AE. Make a few finals, maybe finally win a 300+ tournament, reach some consistency. Because if nothing else, they are extremely exciting to watch.
They are indeed exciting. She's quite a complete player... capable of maintaining attack from the back, has an excellent defence and counter attack, and is quite skillful at the net. While Watanabe is a good complement with his lefty combo and youthful energy, but I do wonder if he spreads himself too thinly with also playing MD with Endo... but I'm supposing that's just to give him more match exposure for his XD pairing leading up to Tokyo OG.
i'm not cautious. yuta is talented, fast, powerful and plays very smart. he is now fully recovered from injury, which contributed to their low ranking. that is to be expected, and on track, for a young pair. re. your comparison to chen qingchen: what i like about higashino is she's getting better and progressing. whereas cqc started off extremely fast but seems to be fading of late. the problem with early success is you lack a complete game while thinking everything is fine, since you're winning. once you realize everyone has figured you out it's almost too late to redevelop and retool your game. yuta/arisa are primed to be serious medal contenders come 2020.
Wow, congrats on the AE outing. Bold, exciting and inspirational play! If they keep at this, can they make it to the SS finals?
all england champion yeay!!! hope they can win more in the future. yuta officially becoming my new favorite player, such a crafty player...enjoyable to watch.
Sometimes all it takes to make a new fan are three video clips: 1) That awesome jump smash from Arisa Higashino posted by @lurker 2) The BWF highlights clip from yesterday's AE final 3) Watching the whole match during breakfast today I feel like we have seen the birth of a future superstar pair and regular XD title contenders there. Pretty nervous start in game 1, then fighting themselves back into the match with pure will and great defense in game 2, and then showing what they are truely capable of in game 3. Finally, there is another XD pair on the scene that I will be following very closely in the future. Very inspiring. Now imagine the mental boost they get from winning such a big title at the first attempt. And @visor, if they continue to play on that level and stay healthy, I think you can extend the question to "can they make it to the SS finals finals?". Besides, I think for other big badminton countries it has to be scary to see the amount of talent that is hiding in the Japanese team these days.
It was pretty amazing the way Yuta was playing after having so many matches. Physically very strong and to think he had a back injury before.... Loved the way they kept fighting through that second game. Great game of mixed doubles and very very fast..
I don't get excited by many XD pairings but I really do like this pair. Higashino is an amazing forecourt player, her speed and anticipation is fantastic, great jump smashes too!
Unfortunately the AE coincided with the BNP Paribas Open (women's tennis), which incidentally a Japanese national won, ... and consequently Watanabe/Higashino were totally eclipsed by Osaka Naomi on mainstream television. They did not even feature in the sports highlights shown on news programmes. Online newspapers, too, seem mute, with little more than the score line being mentioned. Maybe once they win a few more tournaments there will be a little more coverage. As for the NBA's comments on the results: Nakanishi Yosuke (National Team A coach), who covered the tournament, mentions that in G1 the pair tended to be punished by a repetition of smashes when responding to drop shots. They started to display more dynamism in G2, and through their speed, which exceeded that of their opponents, began to control the pace of the game. In G3, Watanabe/Higashino were clearly fearless and, after further increasing the momentum of their attack, went on to win. (...this is a liberal translation )
Yuta is really in the mould of Kevin Sanjaya.. fast, weird shuttle placement to confuse opponent, etc. I believed in next 3 years more and more fast player will come through the rank..
Perhaps is it because of the new coach, Malaysia's Jeremy Gan? I noticed that the pair changed their playing style. Japanese players are usually defensive players. They wait it out until the opportunity comes and takes it. However, this time, they were the aggressively creating the opportunities: those drop shots from Yuta, Arisa hunting the shuttle in the net and the strong smashes from both.
I agree. Japanese players are usually good in defense though. Maybe because they have a new coach, the japanese started to have a different playing style focusing on attack this time. Both Yuta and Arisa are very strong and aggressive. And they are very different from the your usual japanese players: Yuta with his unpredictable shots and Arisa with her strong, fast plays in the net.
