What insider news! I only heard his coaches are going to change to Mr. Tucson and Sir Santa Fe, all albeit with very very strong japanese Accents!
He collapsed at the end of G3, and was laid out flat on his back with medical attention being administered during the prize-giving ceremony. After 15 minutes, he finally managed to get up and leave the hall. It could be fatigue. Kamura's comment in his post-match interview: Q. It looked as though Sonoda's legs stopped moving from the middle of G2. Kamura: We played a really good first game, but in the first half of G2, until we took 11 points, I felt that Sonoda's breathing was different from usual. Usually, if he takes a little rest he's fine; I have never seen him like this. One of Sonoda's virtues is to continue hitting the shuttle however tough the situation gets, therefore I am a little worried. I am not sure what his condition is right now, so I can't really say anything, but I don't think it's an injury.
Except for her second game in the final I felt like A. Ohori played a rather good badminton. Now she would need to confirm that impression on the Tour.
Nishimoto gave Momota a good fight. He has a weapon to kill the shuttle now but Momota's accuracy was still a big problem with not only Nishimoto but also all players in the world.
I am not so sure. I watched both Takahashi Sayaka and Ohori Aya play against Okuhara and felt that Takahashi was more of a threat, ... until the errors multiplied. Her attack (smash power) is far more lethal than Ohori's. Ohori is good when it comes to using the width of the court with her rather steep cuts, but to be frank, that's about it. Yes, Ohori managed to beat an under par Yamaguchi, but her other conquests at the All Japan Championships did not include a single national team player, ... so it's difficult to judge just how good her badminton is. I am looking forward to seeing how far Takahashi Asuka and Gunji Riko will go.
These two featured in the 2018 MS final of the All Japan Championships, too. At that time Momota won 2-1. Watching them playing against each other again today, it has become obvious just how much the gap between them has widened. Momota no longer has any rivals in Japan, ... and Nishimoto is well aware of this. What either Nishimoto or Tsuneyama should at least aim to do, though, is to ensure that one of them is placed in the top 16 in the Race to Tokyo. As a commentator explained in one of the videos that @Cunning Linguist kindly uploaded on this forum, it would reduce the emotional pressure on Momota so much, if a compatriot were there to join him.
Thanks for updates. Hope he is fine and fit to play world tour final next week. Hope AY also able have good performance there as well.
I thought she showed a strong game in the first match of the final against Japan's current top WS player but I guess I was also considering that at 23 she still have a certain margin of progression.
XD Watanabe/Higashino 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) Nishikawa/Ozaki WD Nagahara/Matsumoto 2-1 (10-21, 21-15, 21-8) Fukushima/Hirota MS Momota Kento 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) Nishimoto Kenta WS Okuhara Nozomi 2-0 (22-20, 21-4) Ohori Aya MD Endo/Watanabe 2-1 (11-21, 21-18, 21-8) Sonoda/Kamura
Kawakami did not selected as national member? It's a little pity. Mine also did not, but she did not play good this year and she is not young anymore.
The 2020 national team, as well as the division of Team A and Team B will be officially announced on Tuesday, December 10. However, the list of prospective team members has been decided as follows, in order of world rank (Source: Badminton Spirit https://www.badspi.jp/201912021730/): 1. MS Momota Kento, NTT-East, WR 1 Tsuneyama Kanta, Tonami, WR 10 Nishimoto Kenta, Tonami, WR 15 Watanabe Koki, Unisys, WR 34 Naraoka Kodai, Namioka HS, WR 47 Igarashi Yu, Unisys, WR 76 Koga Minoru, NTT-East, WR 94 Shimono Hashiru, Tonami, WR 103 Obayashi Takuma, Waseda U, WR 136 Tanaka Yushi, Nihon U 2. WS Okuhara Nozomi, Taiyo Holdings, WR 3 Yamaguchi Akane, Saishunkan, WR 4 Takahashi Sayaka, Nihon Unisys, WR 14 Ohori Aya, Tonami, WR 19 Takahashi Asuka, Yonex, WR 64 Mizui Hirari, NTT-East, WR 66 Nidaira Natsuki, Tonami, WR 80 Oie Natsuki, NTT-East, WR 94 Hayashi Moto, ACT SAIKYO Gunji Riko, Yatsushiro Shirayuri Gakuen HS 3. MD Sonoda/Kamura Tonami, WR 4 Endo/Watanabe, Unisys, WR 6 Hoki/Kobayashi, Tonami, WR 14 Koga/Saito, NTT-East, WR 32 Onodera/Okamura, Waseda U/Unisys, WR 47 Kaneko/Kubota, Tonami, WR 53 Takano/Tamate, Hitachi Engineering 4. WD Fukushima/Hirota, American Vape, WR 2 Matsumoto/Nagahara, Hokuto Bank, WR 3 Takahashi/Matsutomo, Unisys, WR 4 Shida/Matsuyama, Saishunkan, WR 11 Sakuramoto/Takahata, Yonex, WR 17 Hoshi/Matsuda, Unisys, WR 73 Otake/Takahashi, Aomori Yamada HS 5. XD Watanabe/Higashino, Unisys, WR 3 Yamashita/Shinoya, Unisys, WR 73 Midorikawa/Saito, Waseda U/ACT SAIKYO, WR 77 Urai/Miyaura, Marusugi/Yonex, WR 78 Nishikawa/Ozaki, NTT-East
@kurako , any link of the MD final of WataEndo and KamuSono? Can't find one anywhere and the one I know got privatized.... was it because to protect the scene where Sonoda received medical attention? Was it so bad? Been trying to find a vid to see what happened....
- Kasumasa Sakai is not on the list, even though he reached SF... - Kaneko/Inoue finally got kicked too. They were 2nd pair after Kamura/Sonoda in 2017 and 1st half of 2018. Don't know why suddenly changed like now
