Agree with Devendra, LXR looked sluggish and fatigued here, she has been playing non-stop from the Asian Games going the full stretch in all the events. CBA should have rested her for this tournament, she was absent last year. The entire KOR team rested this week. Besides, her world ranking points is so high, she can afford to skip a couple of events (and give others a chance as well as not risk injury due to fatigue).
This why she is playing this year... No matter if she looses in first round her ranking points will be improved only.. And yes it is too high even tough her compatriots are forcing her to be atleast slight alarmed... Just a query as BYJ not playing FO she will have a heavy causality of points and SN improved her performance than last year will she overtake her..as far as my analysis is concerned both SN and RI should overtake BYJ but SJH is not under threat..what do you guys say?? And also PV and CM should surpass TTY...correct me if am wrong..
Any thoughts on the WYH vs WSX match? It seems, from results, so far that WYH is in better condition. WSX did have to go the full distance in her previous 2 matches against Takahashi and SN but they are also better players than the opponents WYH had to face. Skill-wise I don't think there are obvious advantages among the top 3 CHN players. LXR and WSX may just edge ahead of WYH (who has some bad habits) but the same can be said for LXR and WSX's fitness.
My predictions WD - oops.. I cant ssy about this. Kento momoto vs wang zhengming - Kento has an advantage. He is lefty with great skills. Wang zhengming is good in this tournament so far. I go for kento momoto. Li xuerui vs Ratchanok - I go for Ratchanok, because she is injured and she is the only one among the other three............. (!). Tontowi Ahmad / lilyana nasir vs xu chen /ma jin - I go for indonesian pair.
Intanon is not injured as seen yesterday, no even slightly injured player can beat Akane who can run and run covering the whole court effortlessly.
Carolina will rise to No.8 and Tai will fall down to No. 9. PV will remain at No. 10. SN will remain at No. 6. Ratchanok and BYJ will swap places. Ratchanok will surpass Sung Ji only if she wins the title.
Wang Zhengming as usual is unpredictable and inconsistent, difficult for me to asses his chances, it's almost entirely up to him against any player apart from The Three Musketeers. Frankly, if he loses to Kento today or fails to win the final tomorrow I'd rather he lost to Kashyap yesterday who I consider most deserving of winning this title for bundling off JOJ and K Tago this two weeks. I really don't have much faith in WZM, hope he proves me wrong though.
You're welcome guys Yup, three most interesting matches to watch should be #2, #3 and #4 since the first and last ties are quite predictable Intanon must have very strong stamina to beat them, good luck!
My Predictions Kento momoto vs wang zhengming - Wang has an advantage. He is righty with great skills. Kento Momota is good in this tournament so far. I go for Wang Zhengming. Li xuerui vs Ratchanok - I go for Xuerui, because she is tired and she is not the only one among the other three............. (!). Tontowi Ahmad / lilyana nasir vs xu chen /ma jin - I go for Chinese pair.
Okay so I watched yesterday's game again. (WSX vs SN) Disclaimer: This comment has been reproduced here from a comment on the Saina Nehwal thread written by this very author My observations: 1. Shixian plays the game at a more relaxed and energy saving pace. She is not largely an attacking player, and is a stroke player, hence uses less energy. Her movement is gracious, and was also making saina retrieve and retrieve further sapping energy off saina. Saina, is the opposite. She has only got her aggression, attack. Obviously other things are good as well, but here we are talking about a comparison b/w Saina and the top 4-5. Compared to the others, her selling point is her attack. Her style of play is energy intensive. Not only due to energy needed for attack, but her movements are not energy effective and efficient, and she has a lesser intuitive understanding of the game which can be used by the top 3 players to move saina around, further sapping energy. 2. Game 1 begins, shixian is playing her drops (energy efficient) making saina retrieve and retrieve (energy costly). Saina is also playing on a good pace. They are basically just able to match each other. 3. Shixian is leading, playing her game, suddenly saina decides, she is going to give her all. And she does. That latter section of the game is the best display of saina I have seen in a long while. She increased her pace from good to fast. But, it was extremely energy sapping. Shixian also has a good defence, and saina needs multiple smashes to finally get it down. 4. IN game 3, Shixian goes nerve-bust due to the previous game which she lost from the precipice. Makes many simple errors. Even GC commentates. Saina is continuing with the high pace. But, she gradually starts to slow down. Shixian then decides, she has had it enough, and she just ups her game! Some of the shots in latter section of game 3 are the best I have seen in WS in a long time. Saina tries to increase her pace and aggression, but she has already spent all. Couldn't keep. So, according to me the credit for the turn-around should go to these two things: (a) WSX has already drained all energy off Saina. (b) WSX ups her game, in almost all departments. 5. Initially Saina, tries to fight. You can see the points earned by WSX are all due to her skills and shots till at least 16-15. Finally, once WSX goes ahead Saina just breaks and makes two unenforced errors, which is understandable gives she was so clearly winning. Hence, these are my two cents. On a side note: Saina needs to change her game. Skills should be improved, primarily like: Reading over the game, net and racket skills, disguise in her shots, smoothness and efficiency of movement. WSX has beaten saina twice in a row. She is the only top chinese player the indian duo take easily (relatively). She used to win over her under Gopi. Now under Vimal, she has lost to WYH of course, but twice to WSX. Heads will roll. Kind of knowing Saina, you can expect her to shift her base back to Hyderabad soon. But, in all honesty, WSX has improved her game. One can visibly see that she is fighting hard to get into the Olympic squad. Her stamina seems to be better. Racket skills (at least to me) are better. She is trying to mix her game. And the in the last two weeks, I have seen her occasionally attacking. These are the first instances where I'm personally seeing her apply smashes. She seems to be sincerely working on a good offence. If she succeeds, she can go real far, because there is that distinct beauty in her game. The grace. Compared to that, LXR (and even WYH) are ferocious beasts. They are attacking, and incredibly fast paced. WSX has the grace, like a gentle artist.
Saina lost because of her own mental drawback. She made errors after errors after the score drawn equal. Unusual for her . I never ever seen her like this kjnd of mental breakdown from her. Hope she is ok. Her fighting spirit has gone down nowadays. She was the clear winner yesterday until 3/4th of rubber game and sudden mental death causes her loss. She herself was the only drawback yesterday.
I expect WYH to try her best to beat WSX again in her bid to overtake the latter in World Ranking as soon as possible before the next Olympic cycle begins and keep chasing LXR , better still overtake her as well to reinforce her position for the Olympic spot. For WSX, her ogjective is not just to retain her WR#2 position but also to perform well in the 'foreign wars' i.e. beating the foreign players. WSX is aware of her status vis-a-vis her two rival teammates as far as Olympic qualification is concerned; she is realistic enough to admit to the press the other day that she is not as strong as LXR and WYH and doesn't consider herself as a leading CHN WS player but she will continue to strive on relentlessly.
I was rather "shocked" to see SN putting on weight if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I haven't seen her on TV for quite a while, until yesterday. Now I'll get on with "tonight's" SF matches, beginning with the WD between CHN (Ma/Tang) and JPN (Matsuo/Naito). I take the Chinese to win.
So far the WD G1 has been evenly fought 10-all. Yes the Chinese pair seems not as polished as the Japanese pair, who nows leads 11-10 at the interval.
Two linecall challenges per player/pair per match is simply not enough. BWF ,please increase it to at least three for a start or better still make it two per set instead of per match.
Yeah that means both RI and SN will overtake BYJ.. Do you really think RI will surpass SN even if she loose today.... Are you sure that PV can't move ahead of TTY..I mean she has really lost quite points...
Ma Jin is more comfortable and effective as a front court player in XD than as a back court player, a role which she is more often forced to take on when playing WD. At the back court, Ma Jin doesn't smash as much as she is required to, nor as hard, that to me is a drawback.
