Wonder if Li/Liu might not take the Wildcard? He can rest for full 3 months before getting ready for AllEngland. Its better than training half heartedly. think of the future. In theory, same for JiaYifan and SYQ as well.
Not just that -- they will need a more "complete" set of skills/strategies that includes playing in humid/drifty halls... You can see the difference between YW/AH''s vs WYL/WDP's road to the finals: YW/AH won all of their matches in 2-games; while WYL/WDP took 3 games to finish most of their matches. WYL was clearly aware that their attacking game was suffering -- so upon winning the coin toss, he chose to start on the far side of the court from the camera where the drift coming down towards the camera would help his smashes... whereas in "faster" halls, attacking players would usually choose to start against the drift, so that you can smash harder without worrying about the shuttle drifting out. OTOH, the fact YW chose not to serve but let AH receive shows that they were ready to play a "long" tactical game -- YW/AH don't have the most solid defense, but they will patiently play you around all four corners of the court if you can't smash them down fast enough. Though if there's any deciding factor in this XD Final, where both the male players were slightly off-form, it's probably the consistency and effectiveness of Arisa Higashino compared to Huang Dongping -- all the Chinese fans were full of questions during/after the match: why did HDP show her despair and cause YW/AH to target her even more? Why was HDP stepping back & giving up control of the net to AH? Why was HDP trying to play winners from the back-court? What kind of on-court advice was the CHN coach giving?
To me, it looked like she really wasn't timing things well and recognising when to dominate the net. Arisa did really well, but you could see her coach in the intervals telling her to keep her racquet up.
HDP isn't a natural front court player though she can be strong and dominating at times. But in this match, I think she kind of performed quite poorly compared to her normal standard. I wonder why there are much fewer female players who can really dominate at the net lately in XD.
So I was at the Hong Kong Open as a reporter and my first video is up! This one is about my first day at the tournament (which was the second day of the tournament but still the preliminary games). I'll be making 4 videos about the tournament in general, one for each day and one extra one about Ken Momota (you'll see). ANyway, my first day is up and please don't laugh at me too much. I was totally overstimulated and over-excited with the chance to talk to my idols so I act like a total dork with the players, hahaha Check back in the next few days to see the other videos! (Or subscribe to my youtube channel) The next one will include the one and only Cheung so I know all Badminton Central regualars will want to see it.
The level of competition is MXD is really low, so quality won't be much higher. Huang/Wang had a really bad day vs Yuta/Watanabe who had a really good day The Chinese pair need to work on their temperament. Never display frustration at your partner.
Woah, what do you expect from a Super 500? Not to mention that BOTH of the XDs were visibly tired at the tail-end of the season... And never make normative statements with checking/stating your benchmarks or norms -- you haven't seen YW/AH have a middling-to-good day until you've seen them take down ZSW/HYQ at the All-England Super 1000. In fact, because of the slow/drifty conditions, Watanabe astutely AVOIDED/LIMITED his smashes (again, see how fast/well he can smash at the All-England) throughout this tournament ; while WYH/HDP kept falling back to their double/continuous-smashing strategy every chance they had... If there were any notable improvements in YW/AH, it's probably the fact that: (1) Higashino doesn't even call out shots to Watanabe anymore (like in their All-England tournaments) (2) their rotational play is even better now that Watanabe "backs off" whenever Higashino rushes the shuttle. (3) their 50%-80% power smashes/drives are even "softer" now (especially with slow conditions) and quite effective in forcing their opponents to move, rally and make mistakes.
lol Are you responding to my general sentiment about the current MXD? Already expressed enough opinions about the Japanese pair in the Japan threads so not gonna repeat myself here. Also already stated the Chinese pair's fatigue from too many tournaments. But one thing is for sure, expressing frustration at your partner is never a good thing.
Just one win by Yuta/Arisda in six meetings doesn't prove anything. It's more like WYL/HDP not having a good day, partly due to accumulated fatigue and some disagreements between the two partners on tactics but they said they can communicate and work it out in the post-match analysis. Even ZSW/HYQ were a bit vulnerable in the last few tournaments after a long year of non-stop competition. Good thing the pair took a timely break. WYL/HDP should've too but somehow they chose not to.
Hey guys, I don't wanna keep spamming my videos here BUT...... My second video includes a cameo from BC's own Cheung! If you've read his posts for years and wonder what he looks and sounds like, here is your chance to see! haha. (Spoiler alert: super nice guy that takes great badminton photos.)
