Axelsen definitely needs to find a solution against Momota, but that goes for every other player on the world tour at the moment considering the level of form the young japanese has had for a few months now. Despite the head to head, 8 - 1 I believe, and the scoreline difference every time they faced each other, I think it is more a mental/tactical problem on the Dane's side. Technically he's as good as Momota from what I've seen. Stamina might also be a factor though, always has been one of Axelsen's weakness. As it's been said, I don't see, at the moment, the likes of Kidambi, Shi, Prannoy, Ginting or Christie competing for the first place. Lee Chong Wei is still doing great but his age will probably catch up on him eventually ^^. Lin Dan and Chen Long are sleeping, or maybe not motivated anymore... The two coming years until Tokyo 2020 are going to be really interesting! Antonsen is not on the list but will also be a prospect to watch, he's only 19 and has already had pretty good results, which rarely happens on the world tour for a European player that young.
Everybody will find a way to solve the puzzle . But i doubt Victor will be able to do that. All others are already working on it . Scores of some of the matches shows that. I mean the players who played KM twice after his return. Even though some of the players don't know how his game has evolved in the first try, they definitely improved in the second time when they played him (only some of them ). It will happen soon. For everything , there is a solution. Nothing is impossible.
You're right, thought he was even younger ^^. But that's still pretty impressive considering that european players tend to reach their peak around 27/28 since they start training, at professionnal level, later than the Asians.
He found a solution against every other player, might find one against Momora as well in the future. But I agree it's going to be a tough challenge! His height is definitely not helping him against this type of player.
It almost looked like VA had found the solution in the second half of G1 in Indonesia. I don't think VA's stamina is as much of a problem now as it has been in the past. After winning the WC, I don't think we have seen stamina being a problem for him. VA may have a much better chance of beating KM in a less windy and slower arena such as AE or the one in the coming WC. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see Rasmus Gemke catch up to AA or maybe even surpass him in the coming years.
AA is struggling in senior circuit. I mean superseries tourneys. Rasmus gemke is ok. But he resembles to me like Hans kristian vittinghus when he is playing. So, hope he won't become like another mediocre player. Sometimes, i felt his shot making ability is amateur. Hope to see him in the top soon. Working harder is the only way. Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
Yes indeed he is struggling, despite the facts that he defeated Chen Long at the French Open. Let's give him another 1 or 2 years on the world tour and we'll see. Sames goes for Gemke. As for HKV, if a top 20 player, winner of a superseries title, is mediocre, then 90% of the world tour circuit players are useless Yes he will never be Lin Dan or Lee Chong Wei, but his attitude, on and off court, makes him a great player IMO. As for VA, looking forward to the world champs to see if he can retain his title!
Sad that he is struggling with his ankle and will be gone for another 2 months (gonna be about 3 considering there is not much tourney in Dec/Jan except PBL)
I guess it's not mean to say that it's highly questionable if his ankle is the only reason to take some time off. At least I can't remember a single moment during the past tournaments in which he seemed to be handicapped by it. Don't know about others in here, but I sensed a clear lack of motivation and killer instinct during his latest appearances. The endless defeats against KM didn't help to raise his mood too I guess. And looking at all the stuff he's done in parallel to badminton (own fashion line, promoting documentary books and movies), maybe it's a good time to set the right priorities for next season. And the fact that JOJ got a place in the French Open line up due to the withdrawal of Viktor and AA surely is a nice side effect.
Viktor is withdrawing from the China Open and the Hongkong Open this month citing ankle injury , as a result, he is also out of the Guangzhou World Tour Finals for failing to get into the top eight of the HSBC Race to Guangzhou Rankings.
So Viktor's struggles against Momota continues. Viktor is now 1 win and 10 losses vs Momota: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/r...-41A2-BC3E-CB57133E64CC&t1p1=89785&t2p1=25831 (they need to update the H2H with Viktor's loss to Momota today in Indonesia). While Viktor had an amazing win against Chen Long yesterday, I think Viktor may still not be in his best form because he just returned from injury. However, Viktor has always had problems against Momota, whether Vitkor was healthy or not. It's been 5 years since Viktor last beat Momota, even though Momota was suspended for a year and a half. I'll say one thing though - that Viktor made the best use of his opportunity to win the WC in 2017 when Momota was suspended. Momota is like kryptonite for Viktor. If Momota was in the WC in 2017 and crossed paths with Viktor, who knows if Viktor would have won the WC in 2017. However, that is history now and Viktor was the best player in 2017 when he won the WC. The question is, with Momota healthy and Momota the #1 player in the world, can Viktor dethrone Momota? I hope Viktor can raise the level of his play this year. I would like to see better games between him and Momota. The 2nd set against Momota today was awful. I know Viktor can play better than he did in the 2nd set so I hope to see some good games from Viktor this year against Momota again.
So I hope Viktor eventually watches how Antonsen beat Momota today (I think Viktor is on the plane back to Denmark now). Antonsen doesn't have the same mental block as Viktor. Antonsen was very cool and composed throughout the match today. Even in the 2nd set, when Antonsen was losing, you could see that Antonsen deliberately made Momota smash more, while Antonsen was taking it easy to conserve his energy for the 3rd set. The best part about Antonsen's win was that Antonsen did it without a coach. Antonsen was so mentally strong, that he was able to keep his focus, and keep his strategy/tactics throughout the match, without the need of a coach, to beat Momota. If Viktor cannot overcome his mental block against Momota, then Viktor better hope he doesn't meet Momota in the WC this year or the Olympic Games next year.
Some poster on reddit says that the girl shouting "VICTORRRRR" during All England is actually his sister. Is it true?
