Yuki Fukushima (福島由紀) and Sayaka Hirota (廣田彩花)

Damn that knee brace was heavy. It was hard watching her play. It looked like a 50 year old uncle playing. Hope she recovers soon.

Let's go India
 
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Quentin11 said:
Wait end of the pairing? You mean for this tourney only right. Not complete end? Is an ACL injury that severe? I know ligaments are tough to heal but considering the facilities they would have.
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Ideally it's 6 months thereabouts to recover from an ACL reconstruction. Then you're at risk of overcompensating with the good knee and risk injuring that one too. Not to mention regaining confidence and a slow build up of rehab and strengthening. Those braces are clunky as hell to move, they're pretty much designed to limit lateral movement in your knee, which is what your ACL does.
 
Doesn't look like there are any issues moving, but the partnership has decided to favour Yuki in the back and Sayaka in the front to prevent overworking Sayaka's knee. It will limit their offensive play as seen from the game vs the Malaysians, but I wouldn't write them off at all. They are playing a good basic game and have strong defence. If Takahashi and Matsutomo can win the gold medal with Misaki not being able to short serve, the dream is definitely still alive.

Very unlikely she retires based on the play on court and their attitude. People's reactions are way too premature.
 
I was wondering what happened in the match against Malaysians... I loved that they won but is puzzled by the sudden down in standard of the Malaysians. They were so strong in the start!!
 
The injury was kept very quiet.

Just for speculation, if Hirota had pulled out before the tournament started due to injury, could their place be taken by Matsuyama/ Shida who were 10th in the ranking? 8th and 9th are Korean pairs and therefore ineligible because there are already two Korean pairs ranked higher).
 
Cheung said:
The injury was kept very quiet.

Just for speculation, if Hirota had pulled out before the tournament started due to injury, could their place be taken by Matsuyama/ Shida who were 10th in the ranking? 8th and 9th are Korean pairs and therefore ineligible because there are already two Korean pairs ranked higher).
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Unfortunately no.
The qualification if based on the Race to Tokyo ranking.
In double, if 2 pairs from the same country want to be qualified, they both have to be with in the top 8 on the Race to Tokyo ranking.
Matsuyama and Shida only rank 10 on the chart, so they can't go to Tokyo. But they are definitely the pair to look out for Olympics 2024.
 
Would be interesting to see how far they can go. We've seen injured pairings go far (and even win) in tournaments like Ahmad/Natsir or Ahsan/Setiawan.
 
hybisme said:
I was wondering what happened in the match against Malaysians... I loved that they won but is puzzled by the sudden down in standard of the Malaysians. They were so strong in the start!!
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The MAS pair totally lost focus on G3. And made many unforced errors. They didn't hit much to Hirota at all like G1.

But I doubt Hirota can medal here if other pairs are better able to isolate her.

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visor said:
The MAS pair totally lost focus on G3. And made many unforced errors. They didn't hit much to Hirota at all like G1.

But I doubt Hirota can medal here if other pairs are better able to isolate her.

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Yeah, I do see Fukushima struggling a little to cover much more areas and Hirota not moving back much.

I was really hoping for them to get something ... but oh well, finger crossed.
 
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