I believe this guy, deserves his own seperate thread. Born on 13 June 1997 in Suginami, Japan Yuta started playing badminton when he joined the Kodaira junior club in Tokyo in 2005, then in 2012 he was paired to his senior Arisa Higashino. He was selected for the Japanese junior team for asian championships in 2014 where he won bronze medal. Watanabe won his first senior international tournament at the Vietnam International Challenge in the mixed doubles event with Arisa Higashino, and also became the runner-up in the men's doubles event partnering Kenya Mitsuhashi. Together with Higashino, they reached the 2018 All England Open final beat three top seeding, and clinched the title after beating the fifth seeded pair from China Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong in the rubber game. Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
If there are more Yuta fans, if I am wrong anywhere, please do correct me, I'll be adding more points to the opening note in coming time. Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
The first time I know yuta was when he played against kamura/sonoda in all japan finals championship, I think it was in 2016. mostly impressed with his defense that time and his disguised dropshot ofcourse.
That was fantastic badminton, what Endo and Yuta did to beat the minions at the All England final. They probably have the best defense in the world in MD. They were very controlled and picked the right time to attack. They didn't attack if they weren't certain of their position and balance. They played a very patient game against the #1 in the world. Only Yuta and Endo can play this style of game against the minions and win. Every other MD team will lose with this style. You have to give credit to Yuta and Endo for their style that can beat the #1 in the world. A well deserved title for Endo, who has failed in the finals so many times at the SS. If Yuta can maintain his game and find a partner that can match him after Endo retires, he will continue to win many more titles in the future.
Yuta was on another level in the final, even the indonesian coach (herry ip) keep saying to minions at the interval to avoid him, his defense is just ridiculous. there's also one moment in the third game where he try to challenge kevin in the flat game and ended up won the rally, he's fearless.
They've been in great form since WTF last year, very unlucky to lose that final last year against ahsan/setiawan after leading most of the time in both games. finally this time they got what they deserved. watanabe is very special player, I'm rooting for them at the olympics.
I still hope Watanabe to focuse in XD only with Higashino after Endo's retirement. It would be more efficient to get more titles.
A little more than 1 year ago, I would have agreed with this. But if you've noticed in recent times, Yuta's true strengths can be utilised and showcased in MD because Endo has the experience and skill level to complement him. Sometimes, I can't help but feel that in XD, Arisa is not at the level required to help Yuta do what he does best. I'm just hoping Unisys has someone worthy of filling Endo's shoes post-Olympics for MD (should Endo really retire). Also, I don't think he would have won the MD title at the AE2020 if he was still contending in XD at the same time. I guess it's a blessing in disguise that he crashes out in one or the other category.
Anyone notice yuta seems to take less risk when he's playing MD ? he made very few mistakes, so solid, so steady, reminds me a bit of prime LYD, though his front court play is not as good as LYD but he's better all around I think.
i'm definitely in the minority when i say he's one of today's superstars. #6 in md, #4 in xd at the same time. how many players throughout history have maintained that high of a simultaneous ranking for longer than 2 years? zhang nan, kim dong moon, zhao yunlei, gao ling... high level 2 way players is an exclusive club.
Cause Endo is way more stable as a partner than Arisa. Once they are forced into defending Arisa can’t get smashes back properly. He should focus on the discipline with a proper partner to support him. With Endo’s retirement it’ll be a challenge to find another MD partner for him, that partner will be under so much pressure because no one wants to attack Yuta. Endo did very very well to hold up against the Gideon/Sukamuljo attack, not sure if Japan has another partner quite as stable
as much flak as arisa gets she's the best female xd player in japan. none of the other japanese female players have the quickness and power to keep up with the other top xd pairs. there's no such thing as the perfect player in any doubles: md, wd or xd.
Yeah I’m not disputing that, but she isn’t at that level that can give Yuta success consistently. He should focus on the discipline where he has a hgher chance of getting success
and i think that is xd. the top 2 chinese pairs are beginning to crack. they've already dominated for a little over 2 years, which is the avg amount of time top players dominate. yutarisa are still improving which is in their favor.
They’re starting to crack, but not really to Yuta/Arisa though. In XD I feel there is a tier 1 pair i.e Zheng/Huang, Wang/Huang and Jordan/Melati and then the rest are still a class below. Honestly with the fast and furious pace that XD is being played nowadays, I can’t help but think that a lack of a big smash to end points is a pretty huge liability (Not only Yuta, the thai pair also).
Did you think that the new rackets which was improved year-by-year make the smash become more powerful. I mean the game that XD played in 2000 was so different with the game in 2020. In the past, as I remember, the woman can defend the man's smash but now, just "one (or two) hit-one kill"
Yeah probably they improve the smashes. The great woman players will adapt with the times though. Huang Yaqiong defends man smashes like a champ, so it ain’t impossible. Maybe now the bar for woman players to succeed in XD has been raised, that’s all. I can’t imagine how different rackets are from 2012-2016 till now though. Back then you had Zhang/Zhao dominating, Zhang hardly had a powerful smash. Don’t think rackets alone can account for this drastic increase in pace of matches. It wasn’t really this fast until Zheng/Huang came into the scene, and I guess the rest of the tour had to increase their pace too to match them, leading to the top XD matches being this fast nowadays. I dunno
it's a combo of equipment & athlete strength/fitness. the game takes a noticeable leap every 5 years or so. go back in 5 year blocks and compare athletes across all disciplines: 2019, 2014, 2009, 2004, 1999...
I'd say tier 2 is YutaArisa, SSJ/CYJ and the Thai pair. In this tier, the pairs struggle to find consistent success while being a threat to tier 1s on a good day while also having some smaller titles. To be honest, if it weren't for their 3 big hauls (2 X 750s and 1 X 1000), Jordan and Melati are still very average at times. Immediately after winning the Denmark and French Opens, they went back to their former selves, lost some to YutaArisa and lost some to Hafiz and Gloria.