The 19 year olds Chen Xiao Fei and Zhang Shu Xian have beaten the 4th and 7th seeded Japanese WD and will meet the 2nd seeds also from Japan in the S.Finals. I haven't had an opportunity to see them play in this tournament but recall they had a strong attacking game. They must have improved their combination. Well done to their new coaches.
Congratulations to Zhang Nang and Ou Xuan Yi winning the Akita Masters today . Its their first win for 2019 and since they paired up? Hopefully the combination will get more confident after the Win. They are a very good pair, very creative and positive.
Livestream for the Celcom Axiata Malaysian junior International is available for court 1 on youtube. Interestingly China has sent 2 rookies in MS. Their players in the AJC were left out. Indonesia has sent their top players but not the rest. Just watched Wang Yi Fan , a lefthanded player, quite tall. Not bad but a little panicky especially when the opponent is about to smash. But good deception and strong attack. Good experience for him.
The juniors at the Celcom Axiata International in Kuala Lumpur are progressing well. All the players have cleared the 3rd round and are in the last 16. For the MS, Wang Yi Fan had an important win against V, Poopathi . VP had taken out the 9th seed from Thailand yesterday. Wang Zheng Xing had an easier match against the 10th seed from Malaysia who retired in the second game. He has a tough game tomorrow against the 2nd seed Christo Popov, a very good and experienced junior from France. Wang Yi Fan has an even tougher opponent as he will meet the top seed Christian Adinata from Indonesia. Well when the going gets tough the tough gets going. The best of luck tomorrow. The WS didn't have it easy too. Zhuang Yi played against a Malaysian, Arena Satu Samin 21-18 and 21-19. She was often having to catch up but managed to win at the business end of the games. Tan Ning, the 8th seed didn't have it easy against Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi ,from Indonesia. KACD kept lead most of the time but again lost it at the business end of the game too. Both will play against Thailands juniors . ZY will play the no 2 seeded Pornpicha Cheoikeewong, whilst Tan Ning is up against an unseeded player. A very good test for them tomorrow. Both the MD and Xd managed to overcome difficult games against Malaysian opponents. Its so nice to see the CBA exposing chosen talented juniors into the World scene. I hope there will be more such forays into other tournaments in the world. Well done CBA.
Wow.!! Tan Ning what a talent. She has great skills at 16 years old. The coaches are aware and has exposed her in 2 tournaments in 2 months !! She is quite a joy to watch. She is strong and taller than most of the China WS. She has good footwork and has all the strokes to match. I like the way she uses her wrists to change the direction of the shuttle at the last minute. She is into the round of 8 against an Indonesian, Bilqis Prasista. As I thought the MS had tough matches . Wang Zheng Xing lost to the very experienced Christo Popov in two games but surprisingly the top seed Christian Adinata lost to Wang Yi Fan in 3 sets.. WYF will meet a Malaysian Kok Jin Hong who has won all his matches in two games. A tough call?
Well done Tan Ning and Wang Yi Fan. They have progressed into the semi finals of the Celcom Axiata Malaysian Junior International. Tan Ning won her match very easily. WYF had a tough 3 setter against a very aggressive Malaysian ,Kok Jing Hong. WYF made a lot of simple errors in the first set and I thought he was heading for a defeat. But in the second and third set he changed his game and was a different player. The 3rd set his smashing was excellent and he scored a few points from that. As for Tan Ning, I think she will win the tournament as she is a very strong player with good strokes. Looking forward tomorrow as they will be playing on the tv court.
As I thought the MS at the Celcom Axiata Malaysian junior International ended as Wang Yi Fan lost to Yonathan Ramlie in two games. In contrast Tan Ning easily won her match to go into the finals. The contrast between the two matches and juniors were so very evident. TN was in control of her match and at no time was she in danger of losing. On the other hand WYF was panicky, played his shots in reflex mode not with precision or accuracy of someone who has been training very hard at home. If this is the standard of the juniors for next years AJC I am disappointed. They are not ready for tournaments. If they were 15 year old teenagers I can understand but they are past 17 years old !! I expected much better quality. TN's game is powerful, so much so her opponents always lifted the shuttle and errors were made. She needs to improve her net play and her defensive lifts. Difficult to see her losing tomorrow.
The World Cup. This must be one of the worst performances by China. Only one finalist. Japan on the other hand has 4 out of 5 finalists. They have certainly taken over as the top badminton nation. Congratulations and well done. Well China, there is a lot of soul searching to be done. Its very noticeable in both the doubles, Japan can produce numerous partnerships that do very well. Why is this? Is it the quality of the coaching perhaps ? From my observation re the WD it is very clear that the smashing power of the Japanese pairs far exceeds the Chinese. Additionally the footwork and work rate is very different as well. More players should be selected at the beginning on the power criteria. Tactics can be taught, imho.
Respectfully disagree. Chen/Jia has offensive prowess that are very strong, way stronger than any of the Jpn pairs. I agree that China has their WD hopes heavily concentrated on Chen/Jia, with Du/Li not being real threats in tournaments. But Chen/Jia has shown they can blow away multiple Jpn pairs in a single tournament, they were just slightly unlucky to face a well-playing Polli/Rahayu this time. Depth of CHN WD squad isn’t as good as JPN, but the quality of Chen/Jia alone is better than that of the JPN pairs for now at least
I feel that the CBA are wasting good opportunities for their juniors. Why were they not participating in the upcoming Indian Junior international on the 29th. Indian players are very strong and it would have been an excellent outing for them. Japan has a team there. The CBA should send teams to Indonesia, Thailand and Korea as well. They all have different styles and its a great test if they succeed. A shame indeed.
Chen and Jia have improved no doubt. I am sorry but whenever they play against Japanese opponents I am not confident that they will win. For me the Japanese, both in MD and WD seem to have overcome their weaknesses in this category. It used to be the Indonesians and the Koreans who were so strong in this discipline. And they are bringing out many new pairs.It means their coaching system is very good. I am afraid there is something lacking in the Chinese coaching department and it needs sorting out soon.
Not sure how you can draw this conclusion. Chen/Jia has been playing well in major tournaments but didn’t show any dominance at BWF tournaments. Even for majors, the JPN pairs are still doing fine. My feeling is Jia and Chen individually are both very good players, especially Jia. But somehow the dynamics between the two feels lacking. As a pair they are not technically better than any of the top JPN pairs.
Personally I feel that Chen/Jia have an X factor that the JPN pairs do not. What you see from the JPN pairs is what you get, incredibly consistent in what they do especially for the slow paced games. But when they are confounded by special things like Jia’s power, they lack the adaptability to solve things on court unlike Chen/Jia and they have somewhat fragile mental strength too. Anyway, I agree that the fact that there is only one real contender on the WD and to a lesser extent MD side (Li/Liu) does suggest that the coaching/talent picking process may be improved
Wow! Weng Hong Yang beat the top seeded Li Shi Feng 12 and 13, easily in the Belarus Open. . Was LSF not well? I have always liked WHY and Liu Haicho but was disappointed with their previous outings. If the results are genuine it would be great as it means there is a new young player rising in the China team. WHY is playing LHC in the quarter finals later
Weng Hong Yang showing his strength again beating 7th seeded Liu Hai Chao 17 and 5 in the quarterfinals. He will meet the unseeded Lei Lanxi in the semi finals. He should progress to the final later.
Oh dear what a disappointment WHY lost 16 and 8, so easily to Lei Lan Xi . Its such a mix up with the juniors. An unseeded player is in the final whilst all the well known ones lost with such poor scores. Anyway best of luck today,LLX
They are generally inconsistent and inexperienced. But at least CBA is now sending them regularly to more tournaments, including the Int'l series. Apparently, for the time being, the second tier and junior CHN WS are doing better and showing more promise than their male counterparts.
There is a glaring problem. At 21 years you have J Christie. And at 20 there us Koki Watanabe. So these players are no comparison. They dont have much time. Thats why I feel the CBA should concentrate on the 15 to 17 yesr olds. Its a sad fact that they weren't exposed early. I hope i am wrong and they will move up quickly to be in the top 10 in the world.
