All England Final 2012 Review

Discussion in 'German Open / All England / Swiss Open 2012' started by jamesd20, Mar 12, 2012.

  1. jamesd20

    jamesd20 Moderator

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    So excited for todays play.....MS, MD, WS especially....

    MS

    This is the one I and most of the crowd were most excited about...the crowd were really excited and loud. The match was pretty good, for how long it lasted. I felt LD was in control for the game, he was definitely trying, as was LCW. It whets the appetite for future encounters in the OG year especially.

    When I was watching the first game I was thinking how comofortable LCW looks against other players, but when he played LD he looked less mobile, a bit nervous really. He has improved a lot and I tihnk he is confident against every other player except LD, because LD is the only player that can push him to his maximum, which leads him to making more errors etc.

    TIme will tell how serious LCW's injury is, but he didn't really seem in any discomfort during the match, and I was very surprised he quit, I thought he would at lest play the match out. Nevertheless LD now has 5 AE titles....pretty impressive and he doesn't show any signs of slowing down at all yet.

    WS

    WYH felt the pace of her previous two games....she tried to play the same game, but because LXR was fresh she could respond. WYH was also a bit frsutrated when things didn't go her way today, I think because she was tired and couldn't play to the level she expected.

    Playing the top level players isn't easy and she played two players who played really well in Tine & Wang SX, but she really needs to learn to finish people off sooner. She also should have converted the 11-2 lead at the interval to victory in the 2nd Game. Nevertheless LXR took her chance and wasn't nervous as it got closer.

    MD

    Wow! The first game was awesome. I thought Cai/Fu would struggle against LYD/JJS as they were sharp and incisive, almost the finished product. THe first game was breathless, the pace it was paid was incredible. It clearly took it out of Cai/Fu as they struggled in the second & third games, but they did well to take the first one.

    Fu's smashes seemed weaker and his jumps not as high/smooth as before. They are much more of an allround pair than they used to be though. Hopefully he can rediscover it for the OG, I hope they win! Chn Doubles player have knack of rediscovering form in OG, eg Zhang Jun...

    That said I like LYD/JJS too....

    WD


    I thought this would be a lot closer than it was, it was in the end a pretty simply victory. It would have been interested to see Yu/Wang play the KOR pair in SF.

    XD

    The INA pair always seemed in control, but I felt Tontowi was a bit nervous in his play - especially when they led. When the danish pair caught up again he relaxed a bit and won some points. I guess it is his youth/inexprience at tht level, but it was a good victory and Lilyana certainly seemd to enjoy winning it!

    It is difficult one to judge at the moment, with no one pir a stand out favourite. XD is def the most open category IMO.
     
  2. chibe_K

    chibe_K Regular Member

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    MD
    I also got the impression that JYD/JJS were the ones controlling the pace of the matches. They did it successfully by changing their tactics by giving Cai/Fu more surprises - shots that Cai/Fu did not anticipate them to make such as cross-court drops that seemed to break the rythm of the Chinese pairs.

    In addition, JYD/JJS defense was simply phenomenal!! Cai/Fu deadliest weapon was the poweful smash and when that weapon did not take them very far you could see they started to make mistakes when trying other tactics.
     
  3. jamesd20

    jamesd20 Moderator

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    I agree lyd/jjs were in control. Yes the defence was superb, I do think fu's attack is not as strong as it could be but it did frustrate him all the same.

    Like I say the first game was breathless...it really took it out of the "old guys"!!!!
     
  4. chibe_K

    chibe_K Regular Member

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    The MD matches were one of the best, the matches were intense and both pairs were equally capable of turning things around.

    Along the same line, it seems mens doubles has reached a new level of play - look at how the speed of the pace has changed over the years. Maybe five years from now we only see young players at the finals :)
     
  5. jamesd20

    jamesd20 Moderator

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    I think md varies depending on the type of players available. 10 years ago we had big smashers with clever front men. Now we have smaller lighter build guys for speed. It comes in cycles, one day more powerful players wil come back.

    Wd is also more balanced Now, before we had big bruisers smashing with little xd players at the front, now apart from Wang xiao li they are all similar in size.
     
  6. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    You could see Cai/Fu collapsing in the middle of the third game. Fu wasn't getting any air at all, and Cai... well, he was swiping and missing. The Korean forcefield really scuppered their default tactic, and they have nothing to fall back on. Looks like Jung/Lee are now the ones to beat in London.

    Nice to see Lilyana finally bag an AE as well, but where on Earth did Laybourn and Rytter-Juhl come from?
     
  7. jamesd20

    jamesd20 Moderator

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    I think it is interesting in md matches sometimes the defenders can see everything coming back to them and get it back. Lyd jjs were very reminiscent of Kdm/htk in that chn couldn't get anything through them, then like you say fu stopped going all out because he knew he couldn't break through, which made it game over.

    Yes def the ones to beat...but I think Cai/fu will have something for London. They will be training around getting fu back on top with the big smashes as they can only win if he gets it back.
     
  8. volcom

    volcom Regular Member

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    I felt Cai Yun was completely let down by Fu's abysmal performance...
    Poor note for CY to end his AE participations...
     

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