LOL, Morten Frost that wily old fox is right -- Momota's ""loose" shots were a trick to bait Chen Long into making quick, flat drives which he is absolutely lousy at!!! Whew, it was clear Momota was tiring from having to turn & to his backhand corner -- but the smarter player has won over dumb, stubborn, stamina play, hahahah!
Nets and drives, nets and drives, and KM controls the game, not allowing his opponent(s) to play the attacking game they want.
This bodes well for CL's motivation and performance in the future. What champ he is playing these 60 shot rallies and conducting them to perfection when he has 5 match points against him. Once again: best badminton of the year.
Do you think he would've won? Momota beat CL in 2 games in the BAC. Would've been a bigger shock if CL suddenly made him struggle.
LoL I asked in another thread many weeks before KM won Asian Championship "who can beat Momota as MS3?" and i got a lot of silly answers ..... now KM won vs VA and CL as MS1 ..... what say you??
Probably not. LD is old and slow now. LD's main advantages at his old age is his control and reading his opponent. However, Momota is like the young version of LD. Momota has good control, is excellent at the net, can read the opponent well, has excellent defense, and is very consistent. Maybe if LD were 4 years younger. But LD is too old now.
His stamina is suspect. But recently, he has done well in 3 games, so Chen Long may not have won even if it goes to 3 games.
It depends HOW Momota would play against LD -- casual players may not realize it, but Momota just beat Chen Long on tactics, not stamina (or even "consistency")...
well CL was gaining back to good form near the end of game 2 .... so who knows maybe game 3 CL becomes god ...
21-9 / 21-18. This scoreline brings Japan leads 1-0. As predicted, highly confidence and reliable Kento Momota outclasses the nervous and monoton Chen Long, too late comeback by Chen in 15-20. Momota netplay is so superb to tackle the Olympic Champion.
But it didn't! Cause Momota was that much stronger. About the match points saved. During all the match it was CL who wanted to score most and KM was making him work a lot for it. Except for these match points where it was KM who wanted to score to finish the match. CL at that time only had to defend and it was just a matter of time given the superior showing of KM.
Momota really played that last point to perfection. He deliberately gave a drive chance to Chen Long's forehand and knew 90% probability Chen Long would hit the cross court drive to that area of the court. Momota covered it well and then drove it back to Chen Long who could only put the return into the net.
