GAO Fangjie (高昉洁)

Oh dear, Gao Fangjie, how could you be so lazy ? No matter how talented you are, without hard persistent effort, you will not go far.

You're still young but never waste your youth, be willing to suffer now for future rewards.

Reading Zhang Ning's take on GFJ, it caught me by surprise, I almost didn't know whether to laugh or cry, not so much amused.

Gao Fangjie is now my favourite CHN WS and my greatest beacon of hope even more than Chen Yufei for the restoration of CHN WS to her former glory.

 

http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2018-01-06/doc-ifyqkarr7586975.shtml (I translated only what Zhang Ning said of Gao Fangjie, leaving out the rest which has been reported in the earlier article I posted a translation of)

Actually, I (Zhang Ning) noticed Gao Fangjie much earlier and thought highly of her since then - her speed, height and techniques are not bad, it's just that she's beset by injuries (lately?) and her training capacity is (currently) poor. At the China Open and the KOR Masters she has shown where her standard is but she mustn't be too proud of it, and take care not to let injuries affect her too much. I believe she still have much more capacity for greater development.

 

Zhang Ning didn't say when she sustained those injuries and what they are. My guess is they occur at or after the KOR Masters which, if correct, partially explains why she's not doing too well at the CBSL these few weeks, losing once to Chen Xiaoxin and twice to Chen Yufei.

Perhaps that's also why she is the only CHN WS among the Asian Team Championships lineup for Team CHN to participate in the IND Open the week before the said team event, probably so as to let her coaches have a better gauge of her match fitness prior to it.

 

I can hardly draw GAO Fangjie's Chinese name on the paper.

Wish everyone's was as easy and elegant looking as the Myth himself, Lin Dan 林丹

 

For The Road to Nanjing World Championships Qualification, Gao Fangjie is ranked a lowly 36 currently with only six tournaments counting towards it, how is she going to qualify as one of the CHN WS representatives when she is playing so few tournaments till now and there are so few left to participate in before the deadline?

Remember, one of Zhang Ning's goals for 2018 is to have Gao Fangjie as well as Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao and Chen Xiaoxin qualifying for the Nanjing WC.

 

At the SIN Open WTS500 , we see a different Gao Fangjie, less aggressive and trying to be a more all-rounded player. That's very good but sometimes I see her overdoing it,I could almost sense her feeling a bit constrained at times.

It's more apparent in today's final with Sayaka Takahashi than in earlier rounds where she seemed to be doing fine with fewer unforced errors than usual, although I needed getting used to it from her.

However, in the final, she is not in the zone and not in her element, too restrained , in my opinion esp when the CHN coach is constantly shouting instructions and encouraging her on the side while she's trying her best to follow his advice. As such, she appeared unable to play freely. I'd much prefer to see her using her intelligence and taking the initiative to execute her gameplan according to her knowledge and comprehension to the best of her ability and let the coach correct her mistakes later during training. Otherwise, she's not really playing her own game and, to make matters worse, she became error-prone as a result.

I understand the CHN coach wants GFJ to construct her rallies more and restrained herself from attacking too much, often prematurely, but she's got to learn to strike the right balance that suits her characteristics and strengths.

Nevertheless, she has much potential and the right physical attributes and at the relatively young age of 19, time is on her side. I believe, with hard work and perseverance coupled with her talents, she will make it one day.

Anyway, it takes time for a player to transition into a different playing style, not too different in her case as she is basically an attacking player, just more all-rounded. more balanced, and , most importantly, much more consistent. Considering the scalps she has under her belt, beating the likes of P V Sindhu, Carolina Marin, Nozomi Okuhara, I won't doubt she has what it takes to succeed and grow from strength to strength going forward. Experience is what she lacks most, at the moment.

Let the future tell how far she can and will go. All the best to Gao Fangjie.

 

At the China Open today, Gao Fangjie inflicted a shock R1 defeat on one of the favourites, the Asian Games gold medalist, Tai Tzu Ying, in two straight sets to boot, score 21-17,21-16.

Despite the win, she wasn't quite satisfied with her performance, saying, she didn't really play very well but it was her opponent who played worse as she (TTY) is currently not in good form which gave her the opportunity to beat the top seed.

Whatever, to me, it's Gao Fangjie's turn to be commended for being the third CHN WS in a row, after He Bingjiao and Chen Xiaoxin, to achieve a victory over the highly fancied, world ranked number one, Tai Tzu Ying. Hopefully, such a result bodes well for the three aforementioned CHN WS and stand them in good stead henceforth.

Gao Fangjie, bear in mind it's only round one, don't get carried away, be down-to-earth and brace yourself for some tough battles ahead,esp the quarterfinals where Marin is likely to be waiting for you, if you clear the next hurdle, Nichaon Jindapol.

 

I am afraid Gao Fangjie isn't good enough yet. She makes too many mistakes, which is a sign that she is still in learning mode and doesn't know what to do.

 

Not a convincing victory by Gao Fangjie today over Nichaon Jindapol, if she plays like that tomorrow, Marin should beat her without fuss in two straight sets.

First, GFJ didn't play well in G1 but was lucky to be handed the set when NJ, three gamepoints up, mishandled the crucial points and even lost the deuce straight, 22-20.

Second, G2 was slightly better but she had her loose moments when she squandered a good lead, 16-10, then 18-12, to 18-17. Ater that the long medical break by NJ at 19-17 up for GFJ, allowed the latter to finished it off 21-18.

What I still dislike about GFJ's game is, one, she's often forced to turn her back to play the backhand. Unless she has a very good backhand like Tai Tzu Ying's who, however, didn't have to turn her back so often, GFJ had better learn to anticipate shots to her deep backhand corner better; two, GFJ must know she has to forced the opponent to lift to her than expect her opponents to lift as most won't if they can help it as they are fully aware GFJ has the height and ability to smash hard and steeply, which means she has to improve on her net play and control the net area as much as possible. Just my 2 cents.

 

I should think Gao Fangjie deserves some credit for the way she played Marin in G2 yesterday, coming back from behind to overtake and even reach gamepoint first, 20-19, before losing the deuces, 22-24, showing grit determination and unyielding spirit.

If she can be more consistent and play at that level throughout, beating a player of Marin's caliber is a real possibility for the 19-year-old talent.

 

Even if Gao had won second game she would have been too tired to win third game. Even super-fit Okuhara has now lost twice to Marin because of stamina issues and being tall player it is not easy for Gao to keep running three games. But she is young and has time to develop stamina. I think Gao has second best potential from young Chinese WS player behind He Bingjiao.

 

Yes, Marin is super-fit and fast, and her strong attacking game is intimidating. Right, at this point in time, Gao Fangjie is not ready to challenge her yet, even winning G2, or G1 for that matter, is not enough, as her fitness level is below hers, even below Nozomi's.

I say this despite GFJ having beaten Marin before but it's not the WC Marin at her best then, which happened at the same tournament , CHN Open 2017, last year.

Stamina issue aside, what I'm emphasizing is how GFJ should play against her if she is to stand a chance of beating her the next time they meet. What is important is I believe GFJ has the game to take Marin on, and working on improving her stamina is required; the same applies even more so for He Bingjiao, the JPN WS notable stamina is just what the CHN WS lack.

Of course, I'm speculating at this time. Let's see how it goes going forward.

 

Gao Fangjie used to be a fierce attacking player, now that she's asked to construct the rally more and play a more all-rounded game, I feel that she's overdoing it, somewhat too restrained to my liking. Often there are times when I'd expect her to inject pace and attack relentlessly but she's not doing it.

I mean, she has the physical attributes,the size, height and reach, including the aggressive streak in her, why isn't she constructing the rallies as necessary and seizing the initiative and opportunities to unleash her attacks more often.

On the whole, WS is becoming more and more like MS, favouring highly offensive players coupled with tenacious defense - just trying to move the opponent around and going for fanciful shots now and then without frequent sudden injection of pace is not going to cut it for top WS players, except for consistent all-rounders like Nozomi Okuhara, Akane Yamaguchi, and Chen Yufei. My 2 cents.

 

Marin not only learned from Wang Xin but also from Lin Dan as she herself once admitted.

By the way, I feel that Chen Xiaoxin suffers from the opposite problem from Gao Fangjie recently, CXX is still too eager to go on the offensive instead of constructing the rally a bit more , in particular, timing her attack better; in fact, I often see her too impatient to finish off the rally and hence more prone to mistakes as well as allowing her opponent to return the shots with interest.

Not surprisingly, for the time being, I like Chen Xiaoxin's attacking game better than Gao Fangjie's. I'm just waiting to see both these youngsters make another breakthrough in their nascent professional careers.

 

Gao Fangjie was injured in her match against Carolina Marin at the Perodua Malaysia Masters.

Looks to be a ruptured achilles tendon. Wishing her a speedy recovery.

 

If it's ruptured Achilles tendon, then it won't be that speedy recovery... at least 6 months with surgery and rehab etc. ...

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, unfortunately it really looks like that. If it's true, this is putting a question mark over her entire career, I'm afraid.
That particular injury is one of the worst, if not the worst you can get as a pro athlete and most people never really fully recover:
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/1...njury-golden-state-warriors-this-is-the-worst

Given that GFJ already isn't the most promising prospect in China, potentially losing a couple of percent of ability and valuable months of her young career might make her fall behind CYY, HY, WZ among others. Horrible news, I sincerely hope it isn't as bad as it looks.