I also have high expectations for the youngster in the future ever since I saw him toying with Popov at the World Junior Championships. That guy is insanely talented to have won the WJC 3x in a row. It's always a joy to watch his matches, especially his net game and defence. He's got a lot of potential and we all can see that. Relatively speaking his game is very mature for his age and he's got plenty of time to get better and to work on his weaknesses. One being his attack. He's never needed to rely on his attack so far to win most of his matches with his deceptive net play, defence and smarts but when he's up against players who are well more rounded like VA then it becomes a big issue. We've seen his attack not working well against the VA or do anything at all to be honest in their past encounters which did hurt to see. It was a stark contrast to when Lakshya Sen was against VA in the All England. Sen's attack combined with his explosiveness can hurt VA and won plenty of points with it, it's actually one of his greatest strengths that led him to win one set against the legendary LD, albeit past his prime but still impressive none the less, at 16 too I think. Anyways KV in the last match against Kidambi has showed that he can adapt and play more aggressively which shows good progress, he's even changed to a head heavier racket (nf800->88d pro) to help slightly more with this. Overall I have high expectations and can't wait to see his progress in the future!
The guy can hold his nerves compared to LS, luckily he got LZJ and LS got VA, I am sure even LS would have won against KS infested LZJ.
KV seems to still be improving since the last activity in this tread. He won German open, he won SEA games. He defeated the WC LKY with ease. He destroyed Heo Kwang Hee in Thomas cup, who himself looked very strong in other matches (vs Axelsen for example). The future is looking good.
Kunlavut is quickly becoming very good. He has excellent court coverage and defense, he is good at controlled grinding play. Attack can be good at times like today in G3 vs VA he scored some nice x-court round the head smash, but sometimes his attacks go out. He can eat attacking players like LKY and LZJ for breakfast. Very few players can grind down KV, Naraoka recently managed to do so, but it took a crazy effort
this rising star got some nerves to force fast paced crosscourt exchange to breakdown the impenetrable giant yesterday, including several great length and height of crosscourt backhand clears. well done
MS in badminton is taking a U-turn, in 2021 season fast attacking players like LKY and LZJ were on the rise, but more recently strong defensive players like Kunlavut and Kodai are the upcoming star players in MS, it is funny how things can change so quickly.
Im getting dejavu... What is that, an 88D pro?!? Someone used to play with an 88 and went on to dominate the scene. @Nine Tailed Fox @Quentin11
