Not to mention the MD category. That leaves Yamaguchi and Watanabe/Higashino. ... Everyone must be feeling quite a bit of pressure. Momota, incidentally, returned home to the fairly remote island Shikoku after the Olympics. I do not want to speculate about what he may have been contemplating, but it appears that PJB contacted him during this time. On another note, Zeniya Kinji, in an in-depth article featured in Badminton Spirit this month, surmises that the impact of accident Momota encountered in January 2020 may have been more serious than everyone thinks. ...
This sounds very interesting. Could you please provide some details on this article? What are the speculations based on? What makes Zeniya Kinji think the impact may have been more serious than previously assumed?
I don't think the media attention will be all on LZJ this time because it's still a team event and even if LZJ wins,the overall result still depends on the team. Anyway Malaysia's MD pair is getting more popular too these days especially after they got the bronze in the Olympics, so I think the Malaysian media will also split the coverage between LZJ and Aaron and Wooi Yik this time and possibly on the WD pair too,depending on how they perform. Whoever gets the best results will probably get the most attention from the media this time,not necessarily LZJ. Sent from my SM-A307GN using Tapatalk
The article focuses on the team's poor performance at the Olympics as a whole, and does not elaborate too much on Momota individually. Nevertheless, Zeniya states that while only Momota knows the true extent, the impact of the accident was very significant. He mentioned that although Momota had been training and practicing, he was not able to perform well at the All England this March. All in all, when compared to his peak condition in 2019, Momota is currently finding it difficult to be confident in terms of skill, stamina, and experience. On top of that, the expectations placed on him at the Olympics proved too much, and this pressure increased due to Hirota's injury. As Momota himself has declared, he needs to start from "zero".
I'm not sure about Japan as a whole but other countries are also struggling with their MS department. Shi Yuqi also got an almost career ending injury and despite that China has not found any other MS player who can act to alleviate the pressure from him, which is worrying,Lee Zii Jia is also not consistently winning yet although I hope he will soon,neither are Jojo and Ginting. Chou Tien Chen is also not consistent. And Viktor Axelsen moved to Dubai so I don't know how it will affect him. So I think Momota can still overcome his difficulties. Sent from my SM-A307GN using Tapatalk
「チーム力」, i.e., the power of teamwork. Captain Momota leading the team, from his twitter site, uploaded less than an hour ago.
Missed the match and Wow!!!!!!!! Johnnie Theurajasyn almost beat Momota in the the first set. @kurako @Quentin11 comments?
Watch the match!! It was a long time coming, but Momota found his feet (and other requisite body parts/skills) in Game 2. He is still not quite back to where he was, but there were glimpses of that possibility.
Momota's post-match comments are available at Badminton Spirit (https://www.badspi.jp/202109291030/). For a liberal translation: I was very nervous and, at the outset, couldn't play as I wanted to. However, towards the end of game 2, I got the feel for the match, and managed to finish on a high note. I was really nervous in game 1, and need to reflect on the fact that I couldn't concentrate on the game, point-by-point. Near the end of the second game, however, I became able to relax, watch my opponent, and think whilst playing. Due to this, the direction of the match turned. I learnt much from this particular match.
He looks better as in his physique compared to Olympics. You can see it on his muscles. However, he looks like he was rushing to the shots on the first set. Momota like Lin Dan always looked deceptively slow on court. Lin Dan looked like he was always just walking. Momota looked like he was floating in kinda of a slow motion. It didn't look slow at all. It looked super super fast - which to me shows considerable efforts being made to do these movements. I don't know let's see. But he is definitely looking a bit better than the Olympics.
I am not able to find the information. But by good order - Momota will be playing against LZJ today? Or Japan will do a Denmark and swap with Kanta?
Momota is 80% back, so that I think just let the match for Nishimoto and save Momota's energy WS, XD and WD can ensure a win
Not unless he can be beamed in from Japan.... Personally, I think that Momota will want to play against LZJ.
