I am not an expert, either, but I will reply to this soon. In the meantime, Yamaguchi's condition is raising concerns. According to Park Joo Bong, she sustained a back injury at the Japan Open last month. This explains her sudden withdrawal from the Thailand Open.
Oh, my, I didn't know that. Still, even with her injury, she managed to win Japan Open title. That's impressive. Now, I am looking towards her performance at the WC. She is now the new queen of WS. The attention will shift towards her.
Really..., I didn't realise that PJB was into these type of "tactics". And, what would a "tactic" like this achieve?
Devastating to see Yamaguchi lose like that after such convincing and awesome performances in Jakarta and Tokyo. Anyway, with Tokyo 2020 just around the corner, it probably is good to keep focus on that goal instead.
In the interview above, Yamaguchi mentions that, although it would be impossible to win in her current condition, she is capable of playing a good game, and that she will have a chance at the Olympics if she can produce that "good game" whenever needed. She is being positive!! There has been no clarification with regard to the extent of Yamaguchi's injury. In a separate article, she mentioned that although the injury has largely healed, she still feels a little odd in her movements. The main problem, however, is one of lack of preparation. Following the Japan Open, she spent eight days completely resting and, although she participated in the national training camp scheduled prior to the WC, she was only involved in conditioning activities. The timing of her back injury was unfortunate, but as far as I can see, Yamaguchi is certainly a top contender for the Olympics. Ganbare!
I did noticed the battle with Okuhara was really intense. Both sonics just refused to let the shuttle drop on their side of the court. At one point, AY had to bent her body in quite an impossible manner to do an over head return shot. Hope she will recover well soon.
Just entering the quarter-finals, Japan leaves only 1 player in the MS, WS, and XD categories. after today, 1 MD is left. I think this year, they are not able to get more than 6 medals, as targeted by PJB
Surely she is one of the Olympics contender. She can play good games on her best form. Even Zhang Ning, Kim JiHyun (Sindhu's coach) also praised that AY was very smart player. Wish her speedy recovery, can't wait to see her amazing play again.
9 JPN reps are in QF. However, 2 reps must lose today as there are 2 all JPN matches. This means at max only 7 medals can be earn. PJB's target is to surpass last year's total amount of medals earned by JPN, which was 6 medals. This means at least 7 medals must be earn or the target can't be fulfilled. In short, all JPN players that play today should win their respective matches (barring 2 all JPN matches which require 2 JPN reps to lose today). It's hard, but everyone has a fair chance to go to SF.
every match is hard match, even in MS. most worry about WS, Okuhara's play style is too monoton, already read clearly by Chinese's coach, i think it will be a very hard match too.
I really can't see seven medals materialising; ... but I presume that the coaching staff would be more than happy if there were three golds. Unfortunately, that is not really conceivable, either, unless one of the MD pairs plays exceptionally well. I know what you mean. I made a couple of notes on the matches I watched at the Japan Open last month, and my comment on the Okuhara vs Michelle Li semi-final was simply, "BORING", ... in capital letters. Okuhara is out to win, and not to entertain, but you are right, there is a lot that is predictable about her game.
Hmm, so JPN team will bring home with 6 WC medals. It's the same as last year. It could have been 7 had TakaMatsu prevailed. But, no, they lost in a very close and exhausting match. The JPN team can achieve better result than last year based on the medal type. Looking at this WC, it's the first time JPN has at least one WC medallist in all of categories. Only WD will have 2 WC medals.
For a few minutes I actually thought that the 'seven medals' were achievable.... But six isn't bad!! There has even been improvement amongst non-medallists. Hoki/Nagahara did quite well in the XD, for example.
Yeah, too bad TakaMatsu lost today. I wonder how they feel after such a tiring match. WC title still eludes this OG champion.
If they couldn't fix their serve, no hope for Takamatsu. I wonder what their coaches doing. Except Fuku/Hirota , the rest of Jpn WD players having issues with their serve.