I think SK suffered mental fatigue. For him victories in tourneys are relatively new, and having two wins in a row must leave him a bit empty inside. He surely needs to recharge his battery. Otherwise, Tian can underperform, but he can also be a top 10-quality player, and he is on that mood now. I do not agree that LCW was an attacking player when young. He was on the contrary a retrieving player. His attacking-style came after 2009.
But I said earlier that SK thrives on loose shots because of his killer instinct. He makes me think of a tiger. But if he meets a no-loose shot player, things get tough. This is bound to happen from time to time.
The Indian team arrives in Singapore on Sunday. That will mean five whole days of rest for all of them (except Saina Nehwal). Hopefully K Srikanth will have a great time at the 2015 SO. The draw too looks very favourable.
Yesterday, i was so sad that srikanth lost his match. That's why, i have given a long explanation for your poster. Nothing else. Don't mistake me [MENTION=13175]Oldhand[/MENTION].
Just had a few words with the coaching staff now in Kuala Lumpur. Tian Houwei was instructed to "keep Srikanth up" on his forehand. That's another way of saying 'lift high and deep to his forehand'. And, indeed, Tian Houwei lifted an extraordinary 132 times to Srikanth's forehand. Contrast that with the number of lifts to Srikanth's backhand - just 30 in all. Since Houwei is left-handed, Srikanth's straight smash wouldn't present a major problem. And, just as expected, Srikanth managed only 10 smash winners from the forehand side. (The two smashes he attempted from his backhand side ended up as costly errors.) I also think the 'lift' strategy must have been 'practiced' earlier. The vast majority of Houwei's lifts were deep enough to discourage smashing. And, to give credit to his consistency, only four of the 132 were bad lifts or errors.
I always find these comments from the coaches very interesting. Oldhand, did you really count all those lifts?
I'd like to know who compiles these stats Oldhand, you certainly have done Srikanth and his team a favour. A simple thing can make so much of a difference.
It would be very indiscreet of me to reveal who I spoke to There's a bunch of people who compile even the most innocuous-looking stats. They are performance analysts who use systems like Sportscode (which is now an essential tool in soccer and rugby (and even in the NBA)). Incidentally, the BAM uses SportsCode. So does Hong Kong. By the way, Srikanth is very aware of what Tian Houwei was doing. The first game had 51 lifts and, by the break, it was amply clear what was going on. But, for some reason, he was unable to effectively counter the lifting tactic. Maybe he was exhausted, maybe he was frustrated ...maybe he was just lost. The Singapore Open will see how Gopichand deals with this threat to his protégé.
[MENTION=13175]Oldhand[/MENTION] I know most posters here (myself and KS included) doubt your assesment of KS as an one trick pony; yet one person who doesn't is PG himself. He has said countless times in the past one year too that KS needs to work further on his all round game and consistency. Dunno why, but PG has ALWAYS rated Kashyap above, well above any of his other MS wards.
Tian is a very big threat to srikanth . Tian is an absolute mirror of LD minus the brilliant smash and brilliance LD displays. However Tian learned the tactics of an older LD not the attacking LD .
Well, I watched the first game of SK-Tian with Oldhand comment in mind, and I did not find something conclusive there. It is SK who actively played into Tian's forehand ; Tian most of the time answered straight, that's it. There was almost no attack from SK, he played slow and was visibly out of energy.
I haven't the faintest idea what your idea of 'conclusive' is. If it helps, here is another way to look at it: Let's take two of K Srikanth's recent games which have the same score: - The first game of last week's match against Viktor Axelsen at the India Open 2015 - The second game of this week's match against Tian Houwei at the Malaysia Open 2015 Srikanth lost both these games 18-21. In the first example, the right-handed Viktor lifted 48 times - and it was almost 24-24 to Srikanth's forehand and backhand respectively. In the second example, the left-handed Houwei lifted 99 times - and it was 81-18 to Srikanth's forehand and backhand respectively. If you don't see something 'conclusive' in the difference, then I'm lost.
I agree that playing into forehand and thus getting a straight smash was the idea . Tian executed it perfectly. Srikanth did adapted in the second game to play the net and slow the game to get high lift but he did not had the energy to execute a winner or may be THW extraordinary defence may have made it look so . Tian also remained at net to avoid netplay and srikanth did not played steep drops or deception and Tian persisted .
Oldhand, your stats are approaching legendary level. As for Srikanth, give him some time.(and perhaps some detailed advice too).
