might be in the future some opponent can read his shot placement but till now, he's fun to watch though..
The Japanese team returned on the afternoon of the 20th and gave a press conference at Haneda Airport. As has already been alluded to in this thread, Watanabe and Higashino attended Tomioka JHS and HS (this is also Momota's alma mater), although, whereas Watanabe is a Tokyoite, Higashino hails from Hokkaido. They have actually played together for seven years now! Higashino, who is one year older, invited Watanabe to join her at Nihon Unisys when he was looking for an employer. Apparently, he half-jokingly told her, "Thank you, but this is my life," and then went on to join the company, anyway. Their comments about their performance at the AE can be summed up as follows: Watanabe: I am really happy to have been able to win. In G1 I was so intimidated that I was not able to do anything. Thereafter I spoke with the coach about my strategy, and the fact that I was able to increase the number of attacking shots led to the victory. Having a mixed doubles coach has been a tremendous support. Higashino: I don't just want to be satisfied with the result of this one victory, but want to continue to get good results in the next tournament. Our target is gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and we should aim to do well at each tournament.
Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino make Japanese badminton history with All England Open mixed doubles win BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino wrote their names in badminton history on Sunday by becoming the first Japanese mixed doubles champions at the Yonex All England Open. The duo, ranked 48th in the world, defeated fifth seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China 15-21, 22-20, 21-16 in just over an hour to take the coveted title, earning Japan a new entry in the history of the prestigious tournament first held in 1899. “I’m happy that we are the first winners of the mixed doubles here for Japan, but we are not going to be satisfied by this result,” Higashino said after the match, according to the tournament website. “We are determined to come back next year and win again.” Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...inton-history-england-open-mixed-doubles-win/ My Comment: Very short coverage indeed by Japan Times, compare to Naomi Osaka savors first pro tennis title.
Incidentally, their nickname in the Japanese press is "Watahiga Pair". Just in case anyone tires of writing their full names, that is.
I stumbled across this video of Yuta playing singles in his junior days and I saw a rally that shows the insane speed of Yuta, its linked to the time in the video:
Yuta have delicious dropshot though..while arisa have a strong smash not typically normal for women. both of them combined really well. Duo to watch in the future.. MXD getting more interesting with a lot of strong pairs.
I noticed that Yuta started having more variations in his smashes (eg. half smashes, fake smash drops, etc) since Jeremy Gan from MAS started joining the XD coaching team. Very effective. During the intervals, Jeremy kept reminding them to use shot variations... "sometimes hard, sometimes soft".
Its nice to watch Yuta. He played really well at AE 2018. Love to watch Zheng Si Wei and Sukamoljo as well. All three is still young. Long good future ahead.
Yes, JPN have 2 XD pairs in BAC Watanabe/Higashino and also Kaneko/Yonemoto 2018 BAC Drawing ---> PDF (download) They have a tricky opening round against Seo Seung Jae/Kim Hana. And if they passed the first step, they will meet Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui.
Cool thanks for that Master! They overcame the chinese pair in All England so they must have it in them I can't wait and I hope I see them go all the way. I should say that Arisa made me become very interested in doubles. I have even started to play doubles matches and enjoying it.
There is a fair amount of "bait & switch" in the way they divide up their duties -- you do a "cross/clear" trying to avoid or push/pull the male player, only to have it attacked by female player moving in from nowhere; and vice versa.... It is physical exhausting, but in turn makes it mentally exhausting for their opponents... This is unlike the CHN way of training XDs, where the male vs female players have relatively fixed duties -- so that they can switch up their partners everytime they start losing in order to "surprise" their opponents -- and also the reason why CHN coaches don't have a clear/simple strategy to deploy against Watahiga...
I kinda had a feeling that this Japanese would win the title in all England 2018, since after watching their match against the adcocks. I told my father while we were watching the game that if the woman in the XD pair can have performance and power that can match her partner, then that pair would be tough to beat, and suddenly came this Japanese pair . I've been cheering for Huang/Zheng ever since they form their partnership, because I really like Zheng's playstyle. But as soon as I saw this Japanese pair, I was afraid that the Chinese pair's reign would be over . However, their finals match was very entertaining to watch, no doubt.
I had to watch this japanese pair's AE finals matches a lot of times and I thought they were really such a dynamic duo. I somehow got the impression that Arisa in particular was like Kevin-ish in her playing style, and was wondering if the match was really for a mixed doubles or a mixed men's doubles The way she jump smashes and move into the front court was really dangerous for their opponents. And she really hunts the shuttle and you can tell the intense fire in her game. Watanabe on the other hand, despite his small frame hits like a juggernaut and to think that he even used a DZS for a doubles game The only other woman player I can remember who jump smashes is kirsty gilmour.
I re-watched all their matches in all England 2018 also, and arisa was the most impressive one of the two, not that yuta wasn't amazing at his play. But to see arisa performed back-court jump smash with the power that can equal a male player multiple times, that was breathe taking. The adcocks didn't even know what hit them. And in the match against Zhang/Li, they totally destroyed them . Zhang was defenseless against arisa's fast interception and smashes most of the time, not to mentioned Zhang was left stranded many times by yuta's drop shots. That MAS coach, Jeremy, sure knows his stuff .
Yea, the japanese pair were really aggressive against all their opponents all throughout their matches and they only deserve the title. I won't forget Zheng's bowed head when he missed a defense against that decisive Watanabe smash as if he was hit solidly by a flying frying pan that came loose from Watanabe's grip
