Round the head forehand shots seems to be easy but it is difficult to execute. I dont find that much flexibility in lixuerui as if you find it in shixian. Shixian is excellent in round the head forehand shots whereas if li does it, she tend to make mistakes. Thats why she is going for backhand shot
Today Li Xuerui performed a good come-back in R16 China open against the 16-year old very talented Busanan Ongbumrungpan from Thailand. Li Xuerui seemed quite tense and pressured for 1.5 sets making many errors...while the Thai girl was playing so nice, very free and powerful. Li Xuerui really rasing her level as the match goes on though, and in the latter stages she is the one who is free and flowing, and her game excells to a point where not many has a chance to resist. But it may be that Li Xuerui is feeling a lot of pressure to perform well these days.. But in next round she will face chinese opponent so that may be a welcome scenario for her, less pressure from the crowd for Li to win
LXR is still developing! This is quite scary. I can say without hesitation that she now possesses the most lethal and polished backhand among any current woman player (including doubles disciplines) and possibly of all time. I watched some of her match against Mitani, and she literally took the opportunity to practise her attacking backhand; smashes, clears, neat drops, slices, powerful crosscourt defences... it was amazing! Mitani was never sure when LXR would take the extra step to convert to forehand and hit a cross-court winner, and even her great court coverage could not get her to many of LXR's deft dinks. This was no power-play madness. This was clever, clever domination. I had said a long time ago on this thread, that she is doing the right thing by experimenting with and strengthening her backhand when most others cautioned against this. I really believe that if she puts her mind to it, she will be in a position within a year where she can put daylight between herself and any other player on the circuit, and up her intensity at will; like a true, thoroughbred champion. Of course the downside is that she might get brain-fades as well. Like in game 2. But that makes it all the more exciting! Two of the greatest dangers for her may in fact be, over-exposure and over-work. Over-exposure may make her jaded. And over-work may increase the chances of injury. She, and her coaches need to watch out for this.
LXR would be the next world no. 1....saw how she demolished Inthanon R just a few hours ago...very impessive!!!! -
Li Yongbo places high hopes on her. He said LXR is not in top form yet. Once she is and after undergoing special,intensive physical training raises her game another level,he believes, she may well become CHN WS iconic figure in future.
congrats for another title in bag Li Xuerui! hmm, just wonder if she will face SN in today's form in the future, who will raise as the winner then. hope i can have this chance.
Would like to grasp this opportunity to render those who said LXR a lucky *derogatory* winning the olympic gold; to return to your BASKET.
Congrats to Xuerui on winning the titles of China Open and Hongkong Open and hope in the superseries final she can meet Saina and other great players and show us her ability.
that won't be happen. even if she win, someone will saying Saina is not 100% yet. not to mention if she lost.
With the current form of hers and seeing that WYH is struggling(poor girl she has to defend a lot of points and she is just ahead by a couple of hundered points) theres no stopping for LXR from ending this year being number 1... Come'On I am sorry if you enjoy a match more when a player is suffering an injury(let it be any player), is cautiously playing and thereby restricted in her movements frm going all out, but to me I"ld like it much more when two leading WS ranked one after the other in the world are fighting each other to their capacity same goes for LXR vs WYH matches.... I wish to see both of them fully fit and fighting against with no orders from high command... As far as SN is concerned injury or not she has given the viewers a treat of some very good quality matches, even against LXR IMHO she made LXR more determined by stopping her from stretching her consecutive wins world record just before the Olympics and the gold at the Olympics has been so far the most favored jewel in the crown of LXR. So, in a that was helpful to LXR, or else its so easy to be so complacent when you havent lost a single match in like 6-7 months or so... All the best to LXR and hope to see good matches frm all these players... its just start of the rivalry both these players are young and theres plenty of good matches expected...
can't help but to notice that LXR is still missing some stars on her shirt. hopefully she will be able to fill in the blanks in the next couple of years.
of course i'm not enjoying such match. and i admit that SN is a good player too. but players do have injuries i think? visible or not, they might have some. and whether their injuries are already heal or not, just known by themselves. but if they are on court already, it's mean they are ready, already prepare enough and can pretty much handle those injuries. so, whatever the result, that is. but as you can read what happened in HK open when WL win over her. so it's just my guess that whether LXR can win over SN or not, to some friends, LXR will still never be able to prove who is better (if you know what i mean). being phenomenon in the last few months to OG didn't make her stars shooting high huh. so, who is CBA players with complete stars nowdays? LD, CY, FHF, ZYL?
In the CBSL Bayi vs Qingdao return match today, LXR again beat Intanon Ratchanok, 21-4 and 21-16. Though Lin Dan also won his match ,this time versus Liu Jingru (Du Pengyu wasn't fielded), Bayi lost the tie 2-3. So tomorrow they will play a tie breaker. Looks like LXR is in fine form now, having won her last three encounters with Intanon, on top of garnering the CHN Open PSS and HK Open SS titles.
Surprisingly, in today's CBSL tiebreaker betwen Bayi and Qingdao, their third encounter in a week after yesterday's 1-1 tie, both LXR and Lin Dan were not fielded. Could it be the rules forbid the same 1st tier players to play more than twice against the same team in a tie match? It's well-known Qingdao have very strong doubles pairs in MD,WD and XD. That's how Qingdao drew level yesterday winning all their doubles matches. Today, now playing the third time, Qindao already leading by winning the XD and MS( featuring Liu Jingru vs Luo Cheng of Bayi). I think they are likely to win the WD as well, now in progress. In that case, with CBSL out of the way, Lin Dan and XXF can go for their honeymoon this month and keeping his promise to her to do so this year,with their old folks in tow.
Bayi team lost? have 2 olympic champions means nothing if they don't have strong TEAM huh? maybe that's why CHN still pretty dominating in team events, because they have champions in almost all 5 categories.
i found a video of LXR vs WX in French Open 2011. LXR's footwork has improved so much in the past year. [video=youtube;0UsQrRfvz9k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UsQrRfvz9k&playnext=1&list=PL36271441473D 7B1F&feature=results_main[/video]
Congratulations LXR for an AMAZING year, olympic champion, all england champion, champion here and champion there. And now, finish with winning Super Series Final. I wonder if the players get a short vacation now? Or does the training for next season begin immediately? I think LXR deserve time for rest and shopping.
Congratulations to Li Xuerui for her 1st BWF Super Series Final title, and also China's 200th Super Series titles . BWF should gives "2 stars" for China for each 100 SS titles, just like in Italian Serie A in soccer, "1 star" for every 10 scudetto