Venue : Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Total prize-money : US$250,000 Tournament website : http://yonexopenjp.com/2014/en/ SEMIFINALS Order of Play : https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...80B9BD-6286-44AA-A4C1-4DD08895509F&d=20140614 JPN time : http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wt...ma=Find%20Time LIVE TV (court 1, 12.00pm) : 1) Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) v Jang Ye Na/Kim So Young (KOR) 2) Li Xuerui (CHN) v Sung Ji Hyun (KOR) 3) Lee Chong Wei (MAS) v Kenichi Tago (JPN) 4) Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA) v Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Noriyasu Hirata (JPN) 5) Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) v Kenichi Hayakawa/Misaki Matsutomo (JPN) - JPN has secured 5 semifinal tickets in almost all categories except WS. WD seeded #3 is the best chance for the host to capture title here. - It's KOR v JPN in WD, rare occasion as none CHN pair representative in their supremo - Two giant killers will face each other, Jorgensen v Hu Y. The Danish #1 will get extra motivation after eliminated strong fave LD - MD, Ahsan/Setiawan v their nemesis Lee YD/Yoo YS for last round clash unless the two unseeded pairs could spring big surprise - Li XR is the front runner to bag her final spot, limping h-2-h stats against Sung JH, 6-0 for the Olympic Champion favour
LXR is marching on into the final, and the past few times I've seen her up against Tai, it's been a painful spectacle, for Tai, that is. So no, I don't think Tai will be a big improvement over Liu as an opponent for Li in the final. Still would be better than an all-China affair, I guess...
And why would it be better than an all-Chinese affair in this case? LXR definitely wants to end her losing streaks in finals here while Liu Xin undoubtedly wants to prove herself to the coaches as we all know how many good WS China has. And besides, Liu Xin is the only one left in the SF who actually defeated LXR before, and she did that twice. On the paper, SJH and TTY can't beat LXR. SJH has a 0-6 H2H against LXR and TTY's is even worse, 0-7. Considering all this, Liu Xin is the one who actually has the chance to create an upset.
Jang YN/Kim SY lost straight sets 9-21 / 17-21 to home fave Matsutomo/Takahashi, the Japanese pair displayed good attacking shots and nice defense too particularly at game 1.
Liu Xin is not an intelligent player, a bit too mechanical in her play. When TTY has changed her tactics in G2 and G3 which is working for her opponent, she still carries on the same tactics.