Would like to say a job well done to Pearly/Thinaah and Man/Tee. Although they finished runner-ups, there is no shame in the spirit they showed in this tournament. Glad to see return to form after a run of poor form for both recently.
It's not easy when you have to do twice the work of an average XD male player. They've come so close to winning big games/pairs many times but always come up short in the end.
...the one point scored by the English pair was when the Thai girl hit long of the back line when the score was 8 - 0.
In my opinion, WHY lost on fitness and stamina to HSP. After the first set, I already sensed it but in G2, HSP was impatient to win and committed too many errors to let WHY equalize. After that in G3, most of the time, WHY's speed and attacking ability was quite restricted,visibly so; often forced to lift in the net dribbles to give HSP attacking opportunities whilst WHY himself appeared wary of initiating the attacks for fear of not being able to follow up with the return shot. OTOH, HSP at age 31 playing with gusto like he's 5 years younger - it's his day today, nay, his tournament throughout. Great job, a long overdue tournament victory. Congratulations, Prannoy !
A new fan of SSJ and Kang! Yellow card, red card and fault at game point could not deter these 2 mentally strong and focused pair.
Pranoy did well. He is fresh coz semis walk over. A bit of luck. For women doubles 211 shots and match ending in 2hrs is madness. The women should play with faster shuttle. Just make the shuttles heavier by 1 to 1.5 grams. Write a petution to bwf to change wd to 15pts or faster shuttles. Like tennis.
Seo almost blew it yesterday. To me, its down to playing double duty more than anything (like home support,etc) Quite risky to be playing double duty at 26-28years old already. I would like to see him playing only MD after Paris. We knew Yuta played DD till 24. It seems that the body is wrecked years after , repercussions, etc . We never know. Athletes want to extend their career as long as possible. Plus its not worth it to lose SF/F when you have the chance to win it just because you are in another event. Also LiuYuchen is WR2 now so he will be the 3rd player after LYD and Hendra to be WR1 with 2 different partners? ( if he can get to 1st)
Noooo..we like it just that way...every 5 discipline have their own unique playing dynamics...WD is such. What makes badminton so great...
Also the hero of Thomas Cup victory, played on after being injured when all hope was lost in the Semi finals. Definitely an Indian badminton legend for me.
