After watching the replay of the LXR - Mitani M match, I went away with a strange feeling. She gave me the impression that she was somewhat nonchalant about the match outcome but only wanted to test her 'new weapon equipped with greater firepower', the way she was attacking ferociously all the while without bothering much to construct the rally and turning defense into attack as quickly as possible i.e. counterattack is the best defense - took me aback as unnecessarily aggressive, and, as expected, she committed mistakes galore. It was only in G2 when one game down and 15-19 behind, on the verge of defeat, that she seemed to play safe a little and practically won the next six points almost at will to force the decider which she duly went on to win handsomely. Today, going by the score as there was no livestream available, LXR appeared to have thumped Tai TY, a strong attacking player herself, 21-10 and 21-13 in just 28 mins. I'd love to see the replay, if available later,just to get a clear picture of how the match panned out.
Justin L, I totally trends towards your view, those CHN fans are just too nostalgic and not easy to get along with. Any way, I think that WS is more exciting than ever, at least much better than MS. Those young players from China, Japan, India, Thailand and other countries are promoting the sport to a grand new level. I'm looking forward to see more.
Ratchanok is still nursing the injury that forced her to pull out of the India Open. Srikanth was asked to play his 'own game' (his usual smash-and-dribble game) but that backfired because Hu Yun was prepared for precisely that. Later, Srikanth was told to lift high into Hu Yun's backhand base corner and dribble to his backhand net corner. The 'high' was very important because anything flatter would have been dealt with viciously by Hu Yun who has a very mean, controlled backhand. The tactic began forcing Hu Yun to play a lot of overheads which meant a totally reduced attack. And everyone knows he hates net play at the backhand net In spite of Srikanth's win, I would consider it a lucky victory. Lazy he may be, but Hu Yun played some awesome badminton. Both Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu train against the Indian juniors. That doesn't really make for tough sparring... but there's little choice. The Chinese players have the benefit of training against each other... and that's a whole stable of top-notch, world-beating sparring partners. Wang Yihan is probably the player with the least stamina in the China women's side. And she has back issues that prevent her from twisting too much to her left. This is one of the main reasons why she attempts fewer backhand returns than the others. And this is also one of the main reasons opponents' coaches instruct their players to play flatter clears (not high clears) to her backhand side.
This may be the wrong thread (sorry, I've lost count...) but I was just watching a youtube posting of LXR's match against Minatsu Mitani. In game 1, with the score 11-11, a dog-fight issued with LXR smashing away, and she completely lost control with what should hve been a finishing smash near the net and smacked it straight into the ground. She then turned to her coaches corner and gesticulated with some short swings of the racquet. The message seemed to be "this stupid thing is too flexy!"
Well, I'm not debating the reason/s why their training situation stinks. I just happen to think that it does, and cobalt's latest post in the India Badminton thread sums up pretty well why the Indian players are mired in mediocrity at the moment and will continue to be unless some drastic changes are made. After all, everyone has to start somewhere, even China, and as far as I know China was producing world-beaters from the very beginning when they started competing internationally, so if India is still having mediocre seniors sparring with mediocre juniors when they've already been on the scene for some while, something is clearly wrong with their programme. And regarding Wang Yihan having the least stamina in the Chinese WS squad - I find that hard to believe considering how many terribly straining matches she's won that have gone the full distance. If anything, it's Li Xuerui who seems to appear more and more winded as long games stretch on.
In your dreams, lady! LXR may have gotten slothful recently -and that is a relative description- but she used to just love wearing down other players and then trampling all over them in the decider. She'd just up the tempo a notch and their shoulders would slump by a couple of miles. Besides, she can't do no wrong....
Well, the person I sometimes watch matches with (and he's in the medical field, too) always comments when he sees LXR that she appears drained as the matches wear on. Take from that what you will...from a person who hardly follows badminton. He's of the opinion that LXR may have some underlying respiratory problems (asthma?) from the way her clavicular area heaves.
If that's what your friend sees, then that's what he sees. I cannot question or contest his conclusions, but I will say this- these athletes are made to undergo such rigorous training and physical conditioning that they could keep playing at a level unimaginable to you and me, far after we're already on oxygen. Especially a Chinese WS player, who is expected to spend more time on court than any other player- alone. Whether LXR suffers (or did) from asthma is something we will probably never know- at least until she retires for good from the game. But I will be watching her more closely, now!
Did I not say this SO will present a lot of upsets including the just-concluded one by Simon over Du. As though the photographers smelt something fishy they emerged from nowhere to register the historic occasion, at least for Simon. Indeed SS has been having a good run recently after becoming independent but this may have to stop if he meets LCW in the finals tomorrow. Has anybody counted the number of upsets so far?
Only when LXR attains Zhang Ning's steadiness and low rate of unforced errors will she equal or maybe surpass her mentor and become one of the all-time greats. And I'd like to commend Han Li for her impressive victory over Intanon R who apparently was not at her best which I believe is largely to do with her battered confidence. Still after watching the match again, I've to praise Han Li for reading IR's game better this time and even managing to anticipate quite a few of her smashes and deceptive shots. At one point Han Li actually outfoxed IR with a x-court net shot (the kind of shot that IR is well-known for), and at another point she moved to her left even before IR executed her x-court smash, correctly anticipating it - these are just two of the several incidents that I recall offhand.I won't be wrong to say Han Li is certainly a top 10 player, if not before, then, now.
