If I'm not wrong, these features came out last year... They are receiving recognition from Japan's Emperor (along with his wife). Damn, Ayaka and Misaki look really beautiful. Beginning caption says something like: "Akasaka Garden in Mitano, Tokyo Spring Garden Party" Empress: "How many games do you play in a year?" Ayaka: "We participate in about fifteen tournaments a year; five tournaments after the Olympics. Empress: "Pretty fierce/intense." Misaki then says that she is exhausted and amazed. She says she had a lot of power/strength/courage. (Unsure of that) Please feel free to correct mistranslations, if there are any!
Yeah, good to know that Ayaka didn't go for the diplomatic answers. Have to say whenever their Olympic win is featured they always talk about that big stretch from 16-19 down to 21-19. They must be bored talking about it by now.
Nice one indeed, and hopefully they don't get discouraged from their underwhelming performance at Sudirman Cup and work harder towards WC and Superseries final this year. Or, more accurately, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as they've set goals for!
Was re-visiting some old content and saw this post back from 2010, and the premonition of MM/AT becoming top WD Japanese pair did come true 6 years later Just caught up on Australian Open matches and pleased to see them winning their first SS title. Surprised to see they managed to beat CQC/JYF this time; not sure if it's a streak of luck but I think they'll still struggle against that CHN pair moving forward. I think they tend to choke against very aggressive, attacking pairs like CQC/JYF.
A Any pair that use rallies will have a difficulty against that young Chinese pair. But i do believe they can handle it.
That Chinese pair has a weak point... it's the lefty JYF who is often off form and much more prone to errors than CQC. But it does seem like Takahashi and Matsutomo are peaking at the right time for WC. Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
That is the form and tactical sharpness that made me a fan of hers. The placement of their attacks were on point, generating confusion then capitalizing of it meanwhile the coordination of their defense was perfect. Misaki-chan managed very well the pressure and took brillant front court initiatives with those flicks. Those backhands attacks were also satisfying to watch, I remember a lost match during the french open where she forgot about that shot to keep pressure on both sides.
Everything's so major to watch when they are winning or leading. But when losing, her and Ayaka's body language tells a lot. They hardly cheer each other up. They hardly make eye contact. Dunno if it's an internal thing that it's intentional because it'll only wind the other one up... but looking at Yuki and Sayaka and it's a contrast.
Not sure if I'll agree about your comment on them hardly cheering each other up; although it's more often than not AT trying to encourage/motivate MM than the other way round. I must say though they have been quite inconsistent of late, and it won't take much for their juniors to overtake and outshine them very soon.
They only struggle against teammates, but against other countries they are still the most reliable. They actually have great results this season already taking 2 titles in 4 finals, 1 SF and 2 QFs in all tournaments played (none of the R1/R2 exits we've been seeing from them last year so far). I agree though with the body language issue when they're on the losing end but it's way better this year than 2017 when everything was more or less a mess.
Actually they're doing not too badly as the current OG champions. If you think about it, none of the current OG champions in other disciplines are even close to playing at such a high level. But I do wish that Misaki had a little bit more sting to her smashes. As it is now, they're playing more like an XD pair... Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
Funny you chose to mention her smashes... I reckon she should work more on her (low) serves, makes me cringe everytime they lose a point due to her lousy serve
