Imop actually the better player of the two. ZSW is freakishly fast, but quite one-dimensional at times. Experience could certainly change that though.
Yup. 3 gold medals. It appears that despite all our talk in recent years of power spreading to other countries as well especially in the SS, now WT, other countries still have much work to do in these majors. We’ll find out in 2020. One category that CHN still clearly dominates is XD, and with the looming retirement of Ahmad/Natsir, I wonder when other pairs will rise up to consistently challenge the Chinese.
Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong outclassed the competition here, a deserving winner of the XD Asian Games gold , on top of their World Championship crown.
Yes, I agree. I don't think it was such a big disadvantage for foreign players, most already played many matches in Istora and they should also being pushed in a way (also depends on personality as you mentioned), but surely an advantage for the home players. JC or AG or Alfian/Ardianto haven't been on the radar of being favorites or consistent players. Capable of beating the best once in a while yes but not winning medals in AG...
It's funny how one of their worse disciplines turned into their strongest one, and their previously weakest (MD) eclipsed their strongest 2 (WS, MS) which turned to the worst 2....only WD seems to have retained some of its strength. Altogether, I think the sport just got massively more competitive at the top, with better training available for many athletes and China probably having something of a drop in player numbers over the years (esports' rise in popularity probably not helping either).
I hope some pairs can challenge zsw/hyq in the future, they looks really good right now. I'm interested in the development of seo/chae from korea.
Yeah it’s like Korea didn’t really set any goals for this year. Their absence in the top tier really hurt good competition.
As I said, AG is less competitive than a Level 500+ tournament. Maybe more prestigious due to its rarity, but the actual quality of the event is definitely lower. Excluding competition, limiting number of participants from one nation, and this particular iteration was even worse because of the lack of challenges (that we've grown used to) and apparently utterly blind line judges. Havent seen any media footage, so the last point is just what I read here, not what I've witnessed myself. Oh yeah, and the lack of media coverage just makes it utterly forgettable to me as well. Just reading that someone won sth is very different from actually seeing (some of) it.
Yeah, definitely not a favorite to go to finals regularly, much less win the title. Very decent upset potential though, especially against some of the faster, somewhat one-dimensional pairs. Watanabe seems to feed off his opponents' pace a lot, at least to me.
That is literally one of their best chances though, as there is much less competition in early rounds, where they often exit in regular tournaments.
DAY-10 ORDER OF PLAY (12.00pm) => https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...641789-C7DC-440D-99A2-4BC6D8B537EC&d=20180828 Men's Singles Gold Medal Match : Jonatan Christie (INA) v Chou Tien Chen (TPE) Women's Singles Gold Medal Match : Tai Tzu Ying (TPE) v Pusarla V. SIndhu (IND) Men's Doubles Gold Medal Match : Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (INA) v Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto (INA) Fourth seed Chou Tien Chen survived and denies all Indonesian finals, as top-three seeds in this discipline, Shi Yuqi, Kento Momota and Chen Long were sent packing early and below expectations here. Overall both Christie and Ginting demonstrate impressive performance, full confidence playing at homeground. Christie involves in thrilling battle to edge out Kenta Nishimoto, 21-15 / 15-21 / 21-19. Later on, more exciting tie witnesses the inspiring Anthony Ginting must admit the more experienced Chou Tien Chen who shows tenacity and mental toughness particularly at the brink of defeat in second game, 21-16 / 21-23 and 17-21 for world number 6 to book final berth. Jonatan Christie is favoured to nail gold medal based on head to head stats, 4-0 but sports isn’t a math, anything possible for Chou TC to make his name in big headline. Fitness level will be tested tomorrow as both finalists spend long duration match in seminal and accumulated fatigue. World number one Tai Tzu Ying runs smoothly in this AG individual event to rectify her shocking defeat in recent World Championships, the skillfull Taiwanese player defeats Saina Nehwal with two straight-games, 21-17 / 21-14 with her marvelous expertise in front area that often troubles Nehwal. Being bronze medalist four years in Incheon, she needs to overcome another Indian leading lady Pusarla V.Sindhu who eliminates second seed Akane Yamaguchi, 21-17 / 16-21 / 21-10. It’s four times in a row for Sindhu to enter finale in big event, started from Rio Olympic Games 2016, Glasgow World Championships 2017, Nanjing World Championships 2018 then Jakarta Asian Games 2018, she’s definitely a major event specialist. The statistics doesn’t look good for Sindhu as Tai TY won their last five meetings. But this is quadrennial multi-sport event that sometimes spark upset. All Indonesian finals in men’s doubles category underscores host strong tradition to continue supremacy after Kido/Setiawan (2010) and Ahsan/Setiawan (2014). It’s quite predictable plot for top-seed Gideon/Sukamuljo who beat Taiwanese duo Lee JH/Lee Y despite the latter steal second game, 21-14 / 20-22 / 21-12. More interesting fashion in earlier MD semifinal, the on-fire Alfian/Ardianto dispose reigning world champion Li JH/Liu YC who displaying below-par performance. Second time in Asian Games history for INA to bag gold & silver, they did same feat in Tehran Games 1974.
Yup the prestige definitely comes from the fact that its held only once every 4 years. And the competition at the annual Asian Championships and World Championships is definitely a lot more fierce than here where the 2 reps per nation rule is in effect like the Olympics. That rule really changes the tournament. As well as the splitting of same nation reps. But I agree that the lack of challenge system is very disappointing. It’s more of a “nation” thing here in these multi-sport events. WT also has the “nation” thing but it’s downplayed quite a bit to recognize individual glory too. Anyway WT resuming with Spain this week and Japan in 2 weeks so much to look forward to.
Lack of media coverage is really the biggest disappointment to me than no hawk eye or bad line judges which were never good in any Asian Games either before this year's from what I have heard. I understand that this is a multi sports event not exclusively badminton event so lack of the facilities (such as hawk eyes) are probably not a big thing for the organizer. As for the competitiveness, home advantage really played a huge factor here. Personally, I have never liked Istora and its atmosphere but apparently many do and many of the players themselves said it was the best venue to play so I don't know.. could be personal preference. Although in my opinion, Ginting's improvements were more due to his team events matches experiences rather than just home advantages. Or hopefully so.
