Yup, the so-called home advantage is a double-edged sword. I think it's better to be the underdog than the hot favourite.
And, despite all that has been said, I believe Nozomi is a still a force to be reckoned with. To be frank , the way she played and beat Ratchanok yesterday impressed me very much, so fast and aggressive, I have never seen her so ferocious and relentless in attack. What happened to her in the final today against Chen Yufei was somewhat baffling, she couldn't get her attacking game going as much as she would like to, instead it was CYF who initiated more of the offence and taking charge of the rallies more often than not. Perhaps, Nozomi was too eager to win to prove a point to herself and her coaches and it affected her game psychologically.
What I noticed from her match with CYF yesterday, was that she made a lot of wrong shot selections at the end of game 1, while she did good shot selections at the first part of the game. The second game is just her losing the idea and spirit to get back to do the right shots and everything just downhill from there. The key points were about what caused her to suddenly making such a lot of wrong shot selections at the end of 1st game. I did not pay attention specifically on the psychological and tactical aspect while watching, so I couldn't see it clearly on what causes her to sort of like losing focus there (maybe she noticed a weakness during the encounter with CYF which distract her mind from the game). But if she can prevent that cause to appear/being exploited, I think she would have a fair chance to be in the OG podium. After all, she changes her play style a bit only after going independent at hte beginning of this year, so to still adapting to the new gameplay after 5 months is still a reasonable duration to do some wrong shots
It is true that it's a half-year point now for Nozomi, but it's still quite early. She is probably just still adjusting to both the new environment as a sponsored professional, as well as, an underdog now. She had not performed the greatest at the start of the year, and not just herself but her whole country was wiped 3-0 at Sudirman. In reality, she is still doing great. Still in the top 5% of women's singles players. She took this risk and change to push herself from the top 5% to the top 0.5%. There are going to be some bumps. To be fair, Lin Dan said himself, he needed some crushing defeats before he found himself and started to dominate. Let's wait and see. No major tournaments until some minors in Canada and US early July. Then the heavy hitters, Indonesia and Japan end of July. Hard-schedule for summer if she were to try and grab some ranking points. I don't see her needing to over-schedule herself, as there isn't really a 2nd place contender for Japan WS. My biggest personal question on this whole Japan WS subject is... - given that both top Japan singles WS are about the height of the net (156cm) - is there an inherent advantage that someone 170cm+ like Chen Yufei has, that they can't overcome? - PV Sindhu is abnormally tall, that you can take advantages of body shots etc... but what about medium size Am I overthinking?
I think she should find another coach. Shoji Sato's priority is Momota, not Okuhara. She should find a coach that can train & accompany her all the time. See this time, Shoji Sato did not accompany her in AO, but her physical trainer.
Sato Shoji's main responsibility is to NTT-East, his principal employer. As an important corporate tournament is due to commence this week, he will have probably been spending time coaching the team.
Japan certainly have issues with taller women's singles players. Sayaka Sato and Takahashi, Aya Ohori are the obvious choices ~170cm but neither are stable and appears too leggy for nimble footwork strangely. It does restrict their array of choices.
Saw that Nozomi did a post match interview using English! She must be working hard at it during her spare time.
Second WC final for NO. She will face PVS again. The memories of that epic match 2 years ago should still be there. Depending on the circumstances tomorrow, she may end up pushing her limit just like WC 2017 final. All the best for her.
I hope the match will end soon, I don't want to see Okuhara get injury when Olympic is coming. After WC 2017 Nozomi was out of badminton for over 8-9 months.
After Wc 2017, Okuhara manage to go to final of Korea Open, not absence from high level badminton for so long
And she was off from the tournaments for half a year after that tournament. Doing walk out at the semifinal of Japan Open
The match between NO and PVS will be the fourth consecutive one in the major tournaments. 2016 - OG - SF - PVS won 2017 - WC - Final - NO won 2018 - WC - QF - PVS won 2019 - WC - Final - ? Can NO win once more? Let's wait and see for the match. It will be close.
Nozomi putting her english skills to good use. Nice to hear a player give a spontaneous small talk to the camera like that.
Another high margin loss for NO loosing the finals of the WC 7 - 21 in both sets. I don't understand it and I can't explain it. Mental collapse? Lack of endurance and stamina at the end of tournaments? It feels like in today's final and in the final of the AUS open against Chen Yufei back in June of this year (she lost 3 - 21 in the second and final set) she is totally neutralized by the opponent. Loosing by a small margin is understandable, it just means someone is better on a given day but loosing like this in such a one sided match is just odd. Hoping she can solve this problem before Tokyo 2020.