Quick recap of Finals Rd. ..okay, just a brief one..The WS match, once again, was the most entertaining. Followed by the MD match, although it ended in straight games.. Finals Day recap: MS - Viktor AXELSEN vs. Ji Wook KANG. Kang tried his best with an apparently already exhausted body and legs. All he did basically in the 1st game was to return all of Viktor's shots. Coupled those with a few errors by Viktor and he had a 19-16 cushion in the 1st game. Yet, at that stage of the game, Viktor stayed relaxed, found his focus and rallied for 5 consecutive pts (3 of those pts came from net drops) to clinch the 1st game. Once Kang couldn't get those net drops in time, it was basically over for him. In the 2nd game, Viktor just continued w/his momentum to secure his first ever WJC title. *At match pt, Viktor did something which pro players don't usually do by urging the crowd to clap their hands & get behind him at match pt. WD - Yixin BAO & Dongni OU vs. Jinhua TANG & Huan XIA. It turned out to be a half to 75% effort by both pairs. It was like they were playing around in their 30s..Tang JH & Xia Huan, didn't smash at all. All they did was defense, return, lift.. MD - Yao Han OW & Hong Kheng YEW vs. Nelson Wei Keat HEG & Ee Yi TEO Ow and Yew looked much more experience and stable than their teammates. Always on the attacks while Keg & Teo seemed to be reacting and on the defense. Quite a few visually enticing drives and flat pushes, some were close range, which wowed the crowd. WS - Ratchanok INTHANON vs. Misaki MATSUTOMO. I can already sense a THREE-PEAT should Ratchanok participate in next yr's WJC! The more i watch Ratchanok, the more she reminds me of how Taufik plays. Her body language & style of play seems to be always laid back loves to take her time before every play; almost like she's lazy. The way she covers and returns those shuttles which are on her backhand side is very interesting; she literally turns around to get to get them. She apparently also loves the floor, esp. in this match (she stayed, rolled around even laid on the floor mat at least once in every game). At the end, despite Misaki never say die attitude and stealing the 2nd game (mostly through Ratchanok's errors), Ratchanok's skills, game smarts and experience pulled her through. XD - Cheng LIU & Yixin BAO vs. Ji Wook KANG & Hye In CHOI. Fresher legs triumphed over fatigued legs, esp. from Kang JW. The KORs made more errors in both games than the CHN pair thus the straight games victory for CHN.
Couple more notes.. ..okay, last ones before i log off: - Apparently they didn't change the court configuration. And from what i gathered, they did the same thing during the team competition. I guess it was too much of a hassle to re-arrange everything. - The linejudges did a pretty good job. There were hardly any bad calls. - Overall, the organizer did a very commendable job (from security to general help; very accommodating and friendly atmosphere). I just thought the event needed more crowd and fan supports. During the Finals Day, i think there were only 25%-30% regular people who watched. gustaff, check out the other "Pics, videos..." thread..stay tuned..
