My take on quarter-finals day on matches that I will be having my eyes on: MS With all seeded players out, the draw is now wide open and the title is for anyone to take. All the lineup seems to be very exciting and it's really going to be a huge text block so I'll leave out on this . WS 2 WS matches being televised - and definitely the highlights. Akane Yamaguchi VS Wang Shixian ; H2H - 1:0 Yamaguchi had a very easy victory over WSX the last time they met in China SS. This is going to be a close call considering their recent forms but I'll give the slight edge to Yamaguchi. Wang Yihan VS Ratchanok Intanon; H2H - 8:0 Looking at their previous encounters, WYH clearly has the upperhand on paper. Both players have been struggling to produce consistent form. Evidently, Wang Yihan has been performing slightly better losing out to compatriots LXR in 3 sets in MO PSS wheras Intanon lost out to Okuhara in 2 sets convincingly. Personally, I'm rooting for Intanon but it's not going to be easy to overcome the mental hurdle of losing to her opponent 8 times. Sun Yu VS Nozomi Okuhara; H2H : 1-2, 0-1(excluding junior level tourneys) Sun Yu , the ever improving tall athlete will be up against what I believe to be Japan's top ranked WS player(CMIIW); the petite Okuhara. My money's on Okuhara . MD Endo/Hayakawa VS Conrad/Peterson; H2H - 0:3 Japan's top MD pairing against rising Denmark pairing who have been triumphant over many top pairs including WR#1 LYD/YYS in the past few months. 3rd time wasn't the charm for the Japan pairing, so would their 4th time be? FHF/ZN VS LSM/TCH(yes.. I've gotten abit lazy to write out their names in full, especially when it's this long); H2H- 2:0 FHF/ZN had an early exit to KSH/SKC in the MO PSS losing out quite convicingly. Evidently, age is catching up to FHF and he hasn't been playing in the best of form. LSM,TCH on the other hand gave a huge scare to LYD/YYS en route to losing in the semi finals, even having a match point in the decider. Albeit the 2:0 H2H, I really think 3rd time's the charm for the Taipei pairing. Prove me wrong, FHF . WD WXL/YY VS HYQ/Ma Jin ; H2H - nil No encounters between them as a pair because the latter is a newly formed pairing. I lost count how many partners have Ma Jin switched with ; just for the sake of nurturing and helping the juniors to grow better as a player. Personally, I find that Ma Jin is really talented and has what it takes to make it big - sadly she wasn't given a stable partnership. Back to the game, WXL/YY is no longer the 'invincible' like how they used to be few years back. However, I will still give the advantage to WXL/YY but I'll be rooting for Ma Jin and her partner . XD KSH/KHN VS ZN/ZYL ; H2H - 2:3 KSH/KHN was off to a brilliant start winning the current OG/WC champs 2 times in a row- not before losing three times. Their last encounter, I was there to witness it. The Koreans certainly had the chance to push it to a decider until ZN/ZYL made a huge comeback. Their matches thus far had all been in straight games. Tontowi Ahmad/Natsir VS Danny/Vanessa ; H2H - 4:0 Not a huge fan of both incidentally. Just that I should point out Danny/Vanessa are the sole local hope left. Will they be able to triumph over Indonesia's top mixed pairing to salvage some of their nation's pride? -- Thank you if you actually took the time to read this ! I had some free time so.. yep.
Disappointing to see Adcock/ Adcock vs Lu/ Huang wont be on a streamed court tomorrow. I think the Adcock's have a decent chance tomorrow, just hope Gabby's serve holds up ok Yihan - Ratchanok and Shixian - Yamaguchi the other matches i'm most interested in. I really wouldn't be surprised if Ratchanok gets her first win vs Yihan tomorrow. Shixian - Yamaguchi will be a very physical match.
yes... you took the words right out of my mind. That is exactly what I meant. Now it's even more so with Axelson's exit. I'll be happy to see Simon in the final, but he's had to play from qualification so it's not going to be easy.
top 7 seeds toppled like bowling pins... quite hilarious to think all this happened before quarter finals.
