CL : "damn, these youngsters are really gonna kill me on the court. finally some prize money to buy milk powder and pampers else WSX will strangle me."
I think JC chose the wrong tactic to play drop shots to Chen Long, he has a Dropshot Queen at home to practice already Congrats Long-ge.
I'm very happy that Chen Long is back. Hopefully it's possible that he can get the 2nd seed in time for Olympics, or at least a draw that makes him Kento in the final. Really happy that he's back to playing good consitent badminton. And I like what Jonathan Christie is doing. I know that the arena is a slow one, but he still needs to improve his smash. Felt like he was trying so hard to hit the lines that he kept smashing out, knowing that Chen Long would be able to catch them. Really, he's so fast up and down the court that if he's smashes just become GOOD ENOUGH so that he can give himself some good follow up chances after them, he'll become much better.
Not only do Chen Long wants to win a trophy for his wife and newborn baby, yeah, milk powder money, but he also dreads getting an earful from Li Mao if he comes home empty-handed from the European tour.
As for Jonatan Christie, I felt he has the tendency to lose some patience and focused when under pressure, and Chen Long's refusing to 'go away' and keep coming back sort of put him under stress more often than not.
So for all the hype and the (mostly) deserved accolades they've gotten for single matches or tournaments, the younger players in the MS top ten have precious little in terms of titles to show for. 1 500 and 3 300 titles is all that Antonsen, Shi Yuqi (only for half a year, of course), Ginting and Christie have managed to win combined in 2019. There are several important final appearances as well, which is encouraging, but they really need to start winning more. There were so many top players injured or out of form (SWH, VA, SK, CL for the better part of the year, LCW gone for good) that they really should have done more, imo. Two major tournaments remain, let's see if one of the 3 (4) can register a big title. Oh, and congrats to Chen Long for two really impressive weeks. Well deserved title and a good effort to polish those unpleasant results from earlier in the year.
