In the MS event R16, Tian Houwei was knocked out by Gao Huan, and Chen Jin retired without playing a single shot against Liu Kai, same for Qiao Bin who retired from his match with Huang Yuxiang. Chen Jin was probably stressed out by his previous team match loss to Tian Houwei, that gripping struggle seemed to have taken a toll on both of them. As CNG is his swan song, Chen Jin is now officially retired for good to concentrate on his coaching career as un understudy for the CHN WS. That means Tian HW and Qiao Bin can get ready for the CHN Masters next week.
Also available for the CHN Masters is Xue Song who surprisingly didn't feature in the CNG MS. As for the CHN WS available after R16 to get ready for the CHN Masters are: 1) Wang Xin who wasn't featured in the CNG WS; 2) Jiang Yanjiao; 3) Suo Di; 4) Deng Xuan; Not a full list as I left out the lesser known players.
Chen Long lost 0:2 to Chen YueKun in the quarter finals. Not a good tournament for Chen Long at all. If Chen Long does not win China Masters, it may take a while for him to recover.
The key to beat CL is you need more patience as CL is a smart player...a lot of people say cL purposely lost the match to Sugiarto as it is impossible to beat him..because of his head to head record. kKK/TBH lead 7-0 to HS/MK before besting them in OG.
Yeah, he also lost surprisingly to less popular MS player Li Yu in Men's team final despite Fujian won gold medal, def. Jiangsu, 3-2. MS semifinalists : Chen Yuekun, Du Pengyu, Lin Dan, Huang Yuxiang. WS semifinalists : Sun Yu, Li Xuerui, Han Li and Liu Xin Wang Yihan lost narrowly to Liu Xin, 21-12 / 12-21 / 20-22.
First WYH, now Chen Long is going thru a bad patch. I think Chen Long was stunned by Li Yu in the team final which nearly cost Fujian the title, and this is still playing on his mind. Ironically, Li Yu, an ex-national player and now provincial coach, has been telling all his students to learn from Chen Long and he himself has been studying CL's game the better to teach his students.
Has anyone of you watched MD 1/4 between Cai Yun/Xu Chen vs Liu Xiaolong/Liu Cheng? In the 3rd set, at 11-18 down, Cai Yun got frustrated, was about to leave the court and got a yellow card, then got a quick checkup, continued and eventually they lost. His partner Xu Chen looked confused...
Han Li pushed LXR real hard before losing the semi-final in a tight,grueling 3-setter, 21-16,15-21 and 22-20. Liu Xin's fine run continues beating Sun Yu in two straights , 21-13 and 21-12, to progress to the final where LXR awaits her. Wang Yihan defeated Shao Jingjing for 5th place, 21-16 and 21-18.
LXR said after barely beating Han Li, her legs were wobbly, she was soaked to the skin; it was an energy-sapping match when at 11-15 down in G3 her mind vaguely flashed back to what happened at the WC final with Intanon R and she pulled herself together and hung in there until 20-all when she patiently created attacking opportunities to seal the match. She also said the team matches earlier drained them of a lot of their energies and she admitted that in the individual WS event, Han Li had a harder road dealing with four very strong opponents before this semi-final clash with her. At least Han Li is out of contention and get to rest after today and prepare for the CHN Masters whereas LXR has another final's match tomorrow with Liu Xin. I think after 10 days of non-stop, grueling competition in the CNG, both LXR and Liu Xin as well as, to a slightly less extent, Han Li , WYH and a few others, may be too stretched and stressed out to perform normally at the CHN Masters immediately following, what with the hassle of travelling to Changzhou for it. The same fate awaits the several MS tomorrow, notably, Du Pengyu, Chen Yuekun, Huang Yuxiang and a couple others, including particularly, Chen Long who was inflicted an unsavoury defeat by CYK today. The involved MDs, WDs and, to a lesser extent, the XDs, are not much better off. Best of luck to all of them.
Nope, I didn't get to watch them, only go by the results and reports, while waiting for RedShuttle to post the video links.
I think the young, 19/20 years old, Huang Yuxiang, is a player to watch, even Lin Dan thinks well of him. Generally speaking, it's quite common for underdogs to play above themselves against highly fancied opponents resulting in major upsets. So I normally don't read too much into such upsets unless the lesser players went on to score outstanding results more consistently. Not much use beating a very strong player only to lose to the next opponent who is comparatively inferior to the one he/she has sensationally knocked off, if this happens too often, it means the underdog hasn't really improved much. I have in mind players like Huang Yuxiang beating DuPY , Chen Yuekun beating Chen long, Liu Jie and Liu Xin both in turns beating WYH - I'd await their future performances to see if they are truly up to the mark. Among the four aforementioned, perhaps Huang Yuxiang is really something mainly for his relative young age and being noticed by Lin Dan. So far in the team and individual events, Huang Yuxiang has scored notable results beating the likes of DuPY, Qiao Bin, and losing to Lin Dan with a creditable score of 21-16 and 24-22.
Cai Yun and Xu Chen is the defending MD champion. What irked him causing him to show frustration and almost wanted to walk out of the afternoon MD match when trailing in the 3rd set for which the umpire yellow-carded him to resume play - has to do with his MD partner Xu Chen. It turned out that Xu Chen had to play three matches today (9th Sep), one XD with Tang Jinhua in the morning, followed by the MD with him 9 hrs later and finally the XD again in the same evening, so much so that during the MD match, Xu Chen was visibly fatigued making all sorts of mistakes to lose an error-filled 3-setter. Needless to say, the exhausted Xu Chen also contributed to the 3rd XD defeat despite having won the 1st XD match in the morning. Cai Yun expressed that he simply couldn't understand nor accept the coach's arrangement for Xu Chen to play three doubles matches in a day. Don't forget, Xu Chen has been involved in MD for the past 9 days (both team and individual) and XD the last 2 days, inclusive of today, how could he not be enervated.
It sure is tough for LXR to play both WS and WD in team competition, and now in WS individual. It will be a miracle if she still have energy to win the Chinese master.
