Venue : Odense Sports Park Total prize-money : US$600,000 Tournament website : http://www.badmintondenmark.com/cms/...33&pageid=1649 Odense time : http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wt...ma=Find%20Time Order of Play (03.30pm local time, 3 courts) : https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...032FB5-FD58-4259-A71C-4A4B52A4C4FE&d=20141017 As expected the intensity of this tournament heats up, who will cruise to final four? MS, the only seeded players at top-half draw, Son WH will meet once again Indian young star Srikanth. The Korean ace beat Srikanth twice at Incheon Asiad recently, Son has slight advantage to progress. Two Chinese players, Tian HW and reigning WC Chen L will be tested by Ponsana and Leverdez. While local hero Jorgensen who got free QF ticket due walkover from the badminton maestro LD yesterday is predicted to pass last eight against Kashyap. WS, the Chinese powerful trio plus one present their dominance here. Two close ties in this category involve IND WS, Sindhu v Sung JH and Nehwal v Wang SX. Both top-seed Li XR and defending champion Wang YH will prevail against the surprising quarterfinalist Zhang BW and Liu X respectively. MD, top two seeds and home fave still continue their prowess. CHN pairs perform well so far, book 3 slots after knocked out 4th and 5th seed yesterday. Will they still manage excellent play today? WD, again CHN supremacy in this category, represented by 4 pairs and had secured 1 semi ticket. Who will stop them? Pedersen/Juhl v Wang/Yu should be the most interesting to follow. XD, the top four seeds will going to the script as their level describes it. For INA region, LIVE coverage from Fox Sports channel will be started on 10.00pm WIB (court 1 matches).
Thank you CLELY for the great breakdown. Hope CHN MD can perform well tomorrow, both Chai/Hong vs BoMo and Liu/Qiu vs Ko/Shin have good chance to win. FHF/ZN vs Ahsan/Setiawan, WXL/YY vs Juhl/Pedersen, WSX vs Saina are my other flashpoint matches.
It's very creditable that Kashyap could take out Hayom, but then Hayom is on any day a walking wicket, with his clouded approach. But facing Jan O (and possibly a pissed-off Jan O now ) is a whole different ball-game. I favour Jan O to move on to the semis, and probably take on CL there for a blockbuster face-off. Son Wan Ho... if he is playing near or at his full potential, then I'd give him odds on taking this title. He needs to show some more mental aggression, though. Remarkably, Sung Ji Hyun has been Sindhu's bunny so far. Will the trend continue? WSX has had it really easy so far at this tournament, but that is about to change. She'll need to suck it in and gamble on going waaaayy out of her comfort zone. But the same can be said about Saina. This will be much more of a psychological battle between two old adversaries -and they'll be battling themselves as much as their opponents! An underrated match-up is LYD/YYS against Markis/Marcus. Could be a thriller So, who will CP/KRJ target now? WXL or YY? A wrong choice will spell disaster for the Danes! LXR... yawn! WYH... hmmm! I'm a little worried about WYH and where she's headed. The past few months, TJH has gone off the boil. Will this affect BYX's approach, too? This #1 ranked pair is living on past glory right now. They need to prove their ranking is justified. Kakiiwa and Maeda will be asking them some serious questions.
Is BWF Youtube channel still going to stream Court #2? Either Court #1 or 2, INA MD and XD are represented there
Srikanth vs Sonwonho. 50% chance for both to move ahead. Sindhu vs Sungjihyun , though ranking favours sungjihyun, h2h says a different story. But I never believe in ranking and h2h.. whoever plays better on that day will nail it. Saina vs Shixian, 50% chance for both though ranking favours shixian and h2h favours saina. Kashyap vs Jan o jorgensen , Fresh from R32, jan will go all out to blast today in front of his home crowd. Let's see whether kashyap has something left in his tank or not.
Srikanth vs Son Won Ho, ---> My prediction is SWH going through.. but hoping for Srikanth's win Sindhu vs SungJiHyun, ---> Expecting Sindhu to win.. Saina vs Shixian ---> I expect to see a close match, and I can't make predictions here, as I'm still not sure, how good Saina is after the recent change of coaching staff.. Often a change in game-style takes some time to get things right.. I'm more than interested in seeing the effect of coaching by Vimal Kumar. Kashyap vs JOJ ---> I expect JOJ to going through this..
I'd love to see the top two seeds in MD in another final against each other. I really want that rivalry to brew into something excellent.
My predictions: Srikanth vs Son Won Ho -> I think SWH, I hope he's not too tired after yesterday's match Sindhu vs SungJiHyun -> Expecting SungJH to win Saina vs Shixian -> I'd say it's basically a fifty-fifty chance, although I don't like these predicitons as it's the same as saying "I don't know", I hope to see Saina win. Kashyap vs JOJ -> definitly JOJ. He's the better player, plus Kashyap had a long match yesterday. Let's see..
Saina was impressive the way she despatched Mitani yesterday, in fact Saina has been playing her best badminton the last three months or so since the last one,two years. WSX at her best is a tough nut to crack when she can keep moving you all over the court and frustrating and throwing everything back at you often with interest. However, this doesn't happen enough times. The more likely scenario is WSX hasn't got the game to really hurt or threaten a strong, offensive player like Saina who happens to be on top of her game atm. Advantage to Saina. Again, I hate to say this, WSX, for goodness' sake, acquire a decent smash and do it more often. What is badminton without the smash ???
May be WSX is there to prove that you still can reach at the top 5, even when your smash is weak... Yea, I would love to see, that she bring that Smash weapon into her arsenal. That would bring her a very tough opponent... So far I consider her below the level of WYH & LXR..
Zhang Beiwen has been rising steadily this past few months. The last time she played Saina was a close affair that made me take notice of her. Here she stopped Tai TY and Busanan O in their tracks , another sign of her continuing progress. Today ZBW will be facing the toughest test of her career as she is up against the true world number 1, LXR (who, however, is at her most vulnerable on the big-time crucial matches, ugh). I won't say it's going to be a foregone conclusion for either contestants, ZBW is the underdog no doubt but LXR had better be on her toes and not underestimate her 'relatively unknown' opponent who might just choose this occasion to make her move to stardom.
My expectations: KS vs SWH: 20-80. SWH has been a terrific player in recent times. PVS vs SJH: 70-30. Sindhu has a 3-0 h2h record advantage. SN vs WSX: 65-35. This is the hard to predict one. Both SN and WSX are very unpredictable and inconsistent. But based on the fact that Saina was in fantastic form against Mitani and the fact that WSX hasn't been at her best since the All England, I would give the edge to Saina. PK vs JOJ: 10-90. Didn't JOJ win his last 2 matches agaist Lin Dan(excluding the walkover yesterday)? I can't see PK beating JOJ. The only thing is- while Saina was superb yesterday, she didn't look any fitter than she did in the Asiads. That is my only concern. Can she last 3 sets against a tough opponent.
i am really looking forward to MJ/TYT vs ZYL/TQ.. hope it will be as good as MJ/TYT vs WYL/YY in All England Final.
Why SN vs WSX"s match not on TV court...I guess this is certainly a wrong decision by the organizsers..